A Lost Soul
by Vilentiel
Summary: A mysterious alien object is found in Cardiff late one night, can the Torchwood team cope with what's inside? Might it be the daughter of a certain Doctor?
1. Chapter 1 Mysteries follow

Torchwood/Dr Who

Chapter 1

Jack climbed into the driver's seat of the black SUV, he closed the door and poked his head out the window to find the rest of his team staring blankly at him. Their shocked faces were somewhat washed with relief now that they were rid of John Hart. Owen was the first to look a little more critical of the situation, not that Jack thought that was any different than usual, but oh, how he had missed them. He hid his content by being the cocky don't-take-any-crap kind of boss he usually was.

"Oi, are you lot coming? We've got a lot of work to do!" Jack turned to focus on starting up the car.

The rest of the group made their way into the car, forgetting about the other red convertible that was left in the car park, they had anonymously and silently all decided to deal with that later, if at all. Once all the doors were shut and everyone was strapped in and ready, Jack drove off heading for the familiar town centre. The traffic wasn't too bad and they were fairly close to the hub when Tosh made a small snuffled noise, a contrast to the previous silence.

"What is it?" Ianto, who was sitting next to her, leaned in to watch the screen she was holding.

"More rift activity, well a large surge of energy, I'm presuming it's rift activity, the quanto…" Tosh began but just as she was about to waffle on about some techno-babble, Gwen stopped her short with "Where is it coming from?"

Gwen was sitting in the front, she was used to taking control since Jack had left them and it was automatic for her to ask the questions, surprisingly this time Jack didn't even make a fuss. He was concentrating on the road ahead, but still intently listening to the conversation.

"I can triangulate the co-ordinates…" She trailed off again, but this time to her own accord, she did that every now and again, just stopped thinking aloud and instead talking in her head. "Ah, that's it. Bute Park, just off North Road."

"Right, let's go check it out then!" Jack said enthusiastically, a small grin forming on his face.

"Brilliant, just brilliant" Moaned Owen, "Clear up one mess, now we're right in the middle of another".

"Isn't that what Torchwood is?" Ianto's half sarcastic half desperate voice shut him up and they fell silent again as Jack sped up the car.

It didn't take them long to get there, in fact it was barely a few minutes, they were soon out of the car and wandering around the Park. Owen went with Tosh, Ianto with Gwen and Jack went by himself, despite much protest from the rest of the team that he might not come back.

It was still dark, the trees loomed over as the team searched for whatever fell through the rift. Owen was still a little grumpy; luckily Tosh was pre-occupied with trying to find the exact location of the opening in the rift.

Gwen and Ianto were a good team together, trying to get the job done, Ianto looked one way with gun out, and Gwen the other, also with a tight grip on her gun. They came into a small clearing and there, they saw a large rounded metal object, embedded into the ground. Gwen quickly pressed on her ear piece "We've found it".

"Right stay there, till I come" Came Jack's voice on the other side.

Gwen and Ianto, slowly moved forward, and they carefully circled the object, trying to determine what it was. Owen, Tosh and Jack quickly ran into the clearing and they all stopped when they saw what was in front of them.

"Everyone move back" Jack said slowly.

"Why, is it dangerous?" asked Ianto.

"Could be, I have no idea what it is…" Jack moved forward as he said this, trying to find an entrance to the metal object, it could be a small ship, or a piece of junk even, he hoped it wasn't, but it could even be a bomb.

Jack gently traced his hand along the metal till he found a little gap, where what seemed to be a door was slightly open, it had been damaged in the crash and looked like it was stuck with a corner folded back. Jack motioned for some help to try and open it. Ianto and Owen both came to help whilst Gwen pointed her gun at the entrance and Tosh used her alien tech to monitor it.

With a couple of large tugs from the three men the door fell off, it was clearly very damaged. Jack peered inside.

A little girl was curled up in the corner, metal was jutting out all around her and sparks were flying from the broken technology. She stared at Jack, tears were streaming down her face and her eyes displayed obvious fear.

"Hello there" Jack said, he smiled at the child "Come here, I wont hurt you, I'm just here to help, my name's Jack"

Jack held out his hand to the girl but she didn't even look at it, instead she was staring at his other hand, he looked down to see he was still holding his gun. He sighed and put the gun back in his belt "Put all guns away" Jack called back to his team "Nothing dangerous here!"

The girl was still curled up and refused to move, jack began to wonder if she understood what he was saying, after all the gun wasn't putting out a good message. He smiled again and this time held out both hands.

"I'm Jack, What's your name?" Jack said, he paused and then asked "Can you understand me?"

The girl stuttered a bit then replied "Arianna". That was all she said.

"Is your name Arianna?" Jack asked just to be absolutely sure she could understand, and that wasn't some different alien language. But the girl nodded in reply.

"I'm here to help you, come on take my hand, let's get you out of this" Jack tried to sound comforting.

The girl paused for a few minutes, obviously debating her options, stay and get hurt whilst her ship fell apart or go with this strange man to wherever he was about to take her. Deciding that she was safer out of this self destructing cell she gingerly took his hand and he pulled her out into the clearing.

The rest of the team gasped in shock, they were expecting a large goo-y monster with lots of tentacles carrying a big threatening space-gun. But this was a little girl, what's more she looked human, perhaps 5 or 6, in fact she looked so human they each separately concluded in their heads she must be human. But Jack knew better, she was either a human from the future or an alien in human form. It was never that simple.

"Everyone, this is Arianna" Jack announced looking at each of them in turn with a 'don't scare her' sort of look. "We're going to take her back to the hub and make sure she's not hurt, okay?"

They all nodded and Gwen walked slowly forward, she was always the most caring of the group. But as Gwen approached, the little girl clutched to Jack, unaware of what was happening.

"Whoa, it's alright hunnie, I'm not going to hurt you" Gwen smiled "My name's Gwen"

The girl still clutched to Jack.

"Come on, we can do the talking and asking questions later, let's just get her to the hub" Jack said.

Gwen held out her hand for the girl to take but she just looked at Gwen, unsure what to do. With a little encouragement from Jack the girl managed to trust Gwen enough to hold her hand to the car and sit on her lap once they were inside. Gwen put her protective arms around the girl to help her feel a little more secure as they travelled back to the hub.

Once they were inside, Gwen and Jack took the girl, not into the usual threatening interrogation room but to Jack's office, where it looked more comfortable. Since she was only a child, they decided the best approach was the sensitive one.

Gwen put a cardigan around the girl's shoulder's to keep her warm and sat beside her on the bench. Jack took a chair and sat in front of them.

"Where am I?" The girl asked quietly, she had obviously relaxed since their meeting in the woods.

Jack smiled "You're in Torchwood"

"Is that a Planet?" She asked in confusion.

"No, no, this planet is Earth"

"Oh" The girl sighed "I've never been here before"

"Well now you have" Jack grinned "So, your ship crashed and you're here by accident?"

"It's not a ship" Arianna replied "It's an escape pod"

"Right, why are you here alone?" He enquired softly.

"My mother sent me away, she said I had to"

"And why was that?" Gwen asked, her first input in the conversation.

"She said it was too dangerous, that I had to go"

"And why was it too dangerous?" Jack asked, feeling like he was getting somewhere.

"The war of course" Arianna paused "The Daleks were getting closer, stronger"

Jack's eyes widened. He tried to find words but failed. This girl, she knew about the Daleks, but what war? He tried to rationalise his thinking, of course the Daleks were in lots of wars but still, what planet? What race were they fighting, how did this girl, Arianna, come into contact with them, so much so that her mother sent her away?

"You're not human are you?" Jack said quietly after some time of silence.

"No" Arianna said simply.

"You look human" Gwen said quietly

"No, you look Time Lord" Said Arianna, a small amount of confidence returning to the girl as if she were reminiscing on something "We came first."

This took Jack by even more surprise, he laughed and got out of the chair, walked around a bit and then sat down.

"Time Lord?" Questioned Gwen, but Jack was too happy to answer her questions, he was beaming. A Time Lord, he had found another Time Lord, he seemed to be attracting Time Lords at the moment, what with his recent journey with The Doctor and now this little Time Lord… Wait. Jack was putting the pieces together in his head. Surely this girl would know The Doctor, I mean he was quite a famous Time Lord wasn't he, The Master knew him. Jack checked himself; he didn't want to think about The Master. But The Doctor. That was a good question.

"Gwen, can I have a few moments alone with Arianna, meanwhile do you think you could get her a hot chocolate or something?" Jack murmured, trying to contain his excitement.

"Aren't you going to explain about this Time Lord thing, you obviously know something" Gwen stared at him, observing his bizarre reaction to Arianna's statement. "She's an alien right?"

"Yes Gwen she is, and I need to have a little chat with her, now please can you get her a hot chocolate?" Jack said still grinning.

"Okay" Gwen sighed as she walked out the room, only to be met with the faces of Owen, Tosh and Ianto. She shut the door and motioned for them to follow her as she went to get the drink, on the way she told them what had just happened.

Once they were out of the room, Jack turned to Arianna again still beaming.

"I know there's lots of Time Lord's, but, by any chance do you know The Doctor?"

This time it was Arianna's turn to be shocked, her eyes widened at first with surprise and then with delight. "You know him, have you seen him, where is he? Does he know I'm here?"

"Woah, woah, woah" Jack laughed, "I have seen him recently yes, I do know him, and no he doesn't know you're here, but how do you know him?"

"He's my father" Arianna said with glee "Can I see him?"

"Ok…" Jack stammered, he didn't see that one coming. Usually he wouldn't be so quick to believe someone, but what reason did Arianna have to lie to him. "Wow, erm, I'll see if I can get hold of him in a minute, just wait one minute, Arianna"

Jack smiled then raced out of the office and down to Owen's medical room, there was one way he could be sure she was a Time Lord. He pulled out a stethoscope and raced back up to his office. He didn't know that The Doctor had children, and there was no way to prove that was true until he talked to him, but if he could be sure she was a Time Lord, then it was most definitely certain that she was his daughter.

Jack entered the office again, this time to find Arianna smiling, he knew she trusted him now; it was enough for her to know that he knew her father. Besides she had been treated well so far, she had no reason to be scared of Jack.

"Right" said Jack, "Just want to check you're okay," that was a complete lie, he wanted to see if she was a Time Lord, perhaps she knew that too.

"Alright, but I feel fine" Arianna said and Jack placed the pieces in his ears and lightly pressed the stethoscope to the left side of her chest, where you would normally find the heart, and as he expected there was a steady beat, then he moved it to the right side of her chest, and listened intently.

There it was, the second heart pumping away, now, in his mind there was no doubt she was a Time Lord, and he believed everything that she had said. Indeed she did strangely seem an awful lot like the Doctor.

"Arianna," He smiled "I'm going to try and call your father, then, I'm going to show you around, you're going to love this".

Arianna just smiled.

Jack went to his desk and dialled the TARDIS' number, it rang and rang, but there was no answer. He paused and tried again, but still no answer. Well this was The Doctor, after all, and he was notoriously hard to contact. He turned and smiled at the little Time Lord sitting on his bench, swinging her legs.

"He won't pick up the phone, but don't worry sweetie" He soothed as he picked her up. She put her arms around his shoulders and looked at him curiously. "Uncle Jack's going to look after you for as long as you need, and we will find your Dad".

Arianna sighed and placed her head on Jack's shoulder, she trusted him now, he knew her dad and he was going to look after her, she just wished that her father was there to comfort her after everything that had happened. But she knew she had to be strong, she couldn't disappoint her Dad, and she was determined to find him.

"Thank you Jack"

"Thank you Uncle Jack" He replied with a laugh, she laughed gently too "Okay Uncle Jack then" She paused then looked at him "How do you know my dad anyway?"

Jack smiled and began telling her stories of his adventures with The Doctor whilst carrying her down to the room that contained all the alien tech that Torchwood didn't understand.

"Let's have some fun shall we" Jack said finally after the brief recollection of his journeys, "I bet you can tell me what most of this stuff is."

"Of course I can, my Dad taught me a lot you know" Arianna giggled, just as Gwen walked in with the hot chocolate.

"Well you too bonded fast" She smiled.

"We have quite a few things in common" Said Jack, placing Arianna gently on the ground, "And luckily for Torchwood, we've landed ourselves with an alien expert."

"Fantastic" Gwen said whilst clearing a gap in all the alien technology and resting the hot chocolate on the table.

"By the way Gwen, Arianna's going to be staying for a little while, until we can get hold of her Dad, so can you just let the other's know?" Jack asked, watching as Arianna inspected a rectangular device.

"Of course, is it alright Jack, if I go now, I should get back to Rhys?"

"Oh yes, sorry, of course, everyone can go if they want, I'll take care of things here and look after this little one" Jack grinned

"I'm a lot older than I look you know" Arianna murmured, still fiddling with the device.

Gwen's eye brows rose, not from what Arianna said, she was used to alien's being different than they looked, but the fact that Jack was letting a child play around with the device, for all they knew it could be dangerous.

"Right, well I better be going, see you tomorrow Jack, bye Arianna!" Gwen waved as she walked out the room. Although not long after she had walked out the other's walked in.

"Jack? What's going on?" Owen asked.

Jack smiled and leaned against the table, he was about to say something but Arianna suddenly said "Yes!" and she did a sort of hop. Jack noted to himself, that was something The Doctor would do. "You've figured it out?" Jack asked curiously.

"It's a Loigrane sub-dimensional currency integrator" Arianna smiled.

Jack gave her a look that clearly said – in English please.

Arianna sighed "Humans" she then took a breath "It triangulates your current position calculates the dimension in time and formulates the correct form of currency for that exact co-ordinate in space and time"

Again Jack just looked at her, bewildered.

"It's a currency converter"

"Ooooh" Jack grinned, "Brilliant, we can add to the room with all the things that we know how to use are."

Jack took the Loigrane sub-dimensional currency integrator and tossed it to Ianto, who still in shock; barely caught it.

"Place that in room 45 will you please?" Jack asked. Ianto nodded silently and made his way out of the room.

Jack passed Arianna her hot chocolate and smiled again "Well done, I have a feeling you're going to fit in just fine around here."

Owen and Tosh still looked amazed. How did she **do** that?

"Erm, Jack? Who exactly is she?" Owen asked. Tosh was still too shocked to reply. She was the one who dealt with alien tech, if she didn't know what things were, then no-one did. Maybe this girl was going to put her out of a job? Tosh pushed that thought from her mind, she was just a little girl, probably not even human, besides she did other things in Torchwood than just alien tech.

"This is Arianna, she is a Time Lord and she's staying with us for a while until we can get hold of her father". Jack explained as Ianto returned.

"And you know her father then?" Ianto queried.

"Yes, but he won't answer, he's quite a busy man you see, but that's alright, until then she's going to help us. After all the Time Lords are much more advanced in technology and science and well pretty much everything, compared to us humans anyway" Jack said grinning again.

"You're not that bad" Arianna said giving Jack a friendly poke.

"Yes but you're very clever, I bet, even though you look about human age 5, you know as much as about an university student?" Jack asked

"I don't know, what sort of things do you learn in university?" Arianna asked.

"Well, do you know about string theory?" Tosh asked.

"She's a kid, she's not going to know about string theory, I don't know about string theory, other than it's a theory" Owen laughed.

"Well isn't string theory a developing theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity. The strings of string theory are one-dimensional oscillating lines, but they are no longer considered fundamental to the theory, which can be formulated in terms of points or surfaces too." Arianna paused "But then since its inception as the dual resonance model which described the strongly interacting hadrons as strings…"

But Owen cut her off "How is that possible?"

"Told you she was clever, in comparison with humans, it's quite normal amongst her race, you should meet her Dad, she talks exactly like him" Jack smiled and picked Arianna up. She put her arms around his neck.

"Anyway, bed time for you missy" Jack said whilst carrying Arianna out the room.

"I have a bed?" she asked.

"Yes, here's a spare room, it looks a bit boring at the moment, but tomorrow we'll sort things out, I promise" Jack smiled gently.

He put her down on the bed and she crawled in.

"Good night Uncle Jack"

"Good night Arianna" He smiled and kissed her fore-head.

"I miss my Mum and Dad" She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Well you can dream about them now and we'll find your Dad soon" Jack sighed, he didn't even want to ask what happened to her mother, he knew what that the sad tone she used when she was talking about the Daleks meant. He doubted she'd see her mother again. But there was hope for her Dad yet.

Jack promised himself and Arianna, that he'd look after her until they found The Doctor; he owed that to The Doctor at the very least.

Jack dismissed the rest of his stunned team and made his way to bed. He liked sleeping in the hub, then he could always be sure of what was going on, but this time he had a reason to.


	2. Chapter 2 Settling in

Chapter 2

The next morning Arianna woke at about 6:00, despite not sleeping till 2:30. She would usually go and find her parents in the morning, her mum would make her breakfast and her dad would give her a nice big hug and a kiss on the cheek and then turn to his wife and do the same before heading off to do whatever it was he did all day. She never used to ask, mum said it was important, and when the war started he was rarely at home. But now, that was what she missed, the simple life at home with her parents, when they were happy and together, it wasn't the thought that it was gone that upset her the most, although that in itself was heart breaking, it was the thought that things would never be that way again. She didn't want to cry again, she was a big girl now, not a baby, and she was certainly more mature than any human.

Stupid humans. She never could understand why her Dad like them so much, but now she was beginning to see. Jack was nice and he promised to find her Daddy, that was good enough for now. She just had to be strong and hope that he would come soon, until then she had to help the humans. After all they could do with her, after everything she had been taught.

Back on her home planet Gallifrey she had barely begun her education, but her Dad had taught her a lot, her Mum had too, they were both very clever, in her eyes anyway. But now, she had to make do with what she had, she might even enjoy it a bit if she let herself, it was an adventure, and she hadn't ever been to Earth before, only heard stories. That's what she should think of it as, an adventure like in one of her Dad's stories.

She sat up in her bed and looked at the room she was in, it was relatively small room, with simple white walls, and the only things in it were the bed she sat on and a chair by its side. She decided it was very boring in here and got up to go look around.

She wandered round the endless rooms where all the gadgets and bits and pieces were lying around. She skipped around with a smile on her face, perhaps it wasn't so different from home. There was stuff every where, all different technology from different races and different planets, most of it useless but some of it was quite interesting. But the amount of weapons was what disappointed her, she had always been taught that weapons were bad and to kill someone was the worst possible thing, preserving life, that's what her Dad would do, probably what he still does for all she knew.

There was a noise behind her and she turned quickly to face it.

"It's only me" Jack called out as he made his way down the stairs. "You're up early this morning it's only half six."

"Time Lords don't need much sleep" She smiled softly. "I hope it's okay, you know, me poking around, it was just boring in that room."

"Of course it's okay, it's my fault if anything, leaving you in there with nothing to do, I just presumed you'd be sleeping for a few more hours," Jack paused as he gave her a big good morning hug, which she welcomed gladly.

"Well" he said after he patted her affectionately on the head. "Miss Time Lady, we should get something to eat!"

He pulled her hand lightly and they both jogged up to a room that slightly resembled a kitchen. Jack poured out some juice for them both and a bowl of cereal, whilst they where eating Jack started telling more stories about his adventures with The Doctor.

"…And there she was, poor Rose, hanging from that barrage balloon…" Jack's accounts of the stories were fantastic, in some parts he even attempted to act out some of the people he met. "…And I had his hand in a Jar the, the one from the fight, it was sort of a doctor detector, I think I gave it back to him though…" The stories went on and on, and Arianna loved it. She loved hearing about all these wonderful things her father had done, and Jack loved telling her about it.

"Well, what's going on here then?" Owen asked

Both Jack and Arianna turned to look at the door where, Tosh, Owen, Gwen and Ianto were all gathered.

"I'm just having a little chat with Arianna" Jack smiled as he clumsily pilled the now empty dishes into the sink.

"So, just wondering" He said "Gwen?"

"Yes?" She replied with a rather worried look on her face.

"Got any plans for today?"

"Other than working, no…" Her expression reflected that of utter perplexity.

"Right, do me a favour and take Arianna out shopping" Jack then turned to Arianna. "Is that alright? I promise Gwen's very lovely" Arianna nodded in reply.

"Shopping?" Gwen questioned.

"Yes, shopping. She needs something to wear. In fact a whole wardrobe load would be good and just get her some things to do, so that she's not bored all the time, we don't know how long she's staying for yet." Jack looked at his bewildered team.

"Right, of course that would be lovely, but are you sure you don't need me to do anything else?" Gwen queried, this was quite unlike Jack to be so care-free. Shopping? Since he'd been away he'd definitely changed. And Arianna was also bringing out the bright side in him.

"No, no, enjoy yourselves, and please Gwen look after her, remember she's not human and she's never been to earth before." Jack paused after what he just said. "But don't tell anyone that. Just say she's my niece and she's come to say if you have to say anything."

"I'm not an idiot" Gwen rolled her eyes. "Come on sweetie, we're gonna have a great time!"

Arianna smiled and took Gwen's hand.

Ianto, Owen and Tosh watched as Gwen and Arianna walked out the rolling door.

"Jack, what is going on?" Tosh asked.

"Hmm?" Jack looked up to meet their gaze. "Oh, nothing, I just think we should keep her as comfortable as possible, in fact…"

He turned to Ianto.

"We'd better get to work, Ianto can you get some paint?"

"Yes, sir" Ianto turned to go but Jack called after him "I thought I said it was time to lose the sir!"

"What are you doing?" Owen didn't look too impressed.

"I'm going to do-up Arianna's room, so you can order some nice furniture for her and Tosh, do me a favour and get some electrical appliances and stuff for her will you?"

"'Course" Tosh smiled and wandered off.

Owen turned to walk out the door but as he was leaving he called over his shoulder, "We're a secret organisation that monitors the activity of a rift in space and time and you, are babysitting an alien girl and painting her room."

"That's right!" Jack grinned as took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "Let's do this."

Meanwhile Gwen was busy showing the wanders of St. David's Shopping Centre to Arianna who was really quite excited to be shopping on a different planet.

Gwen admired the little girl and felt a little sad for her, that she was so far away from her family and her home. Perhaps it was a natural motherly instinct but Gwen really wanted to protect her and make her happy. She was really scared of losing Arianna in this large complex and there were so many people, especially as Arianna was practically bouncing as she skipped beside Gwen.

For lunch Gwen and Arianna sat in a small café together, they had already acquired multiple bags each but there was just a few more things to get, they were pretty much sorted when it came to clothes. However there were still a few things Gwen wanted to get her so that she could do something with her time.

"So, isn't this exciting, your first time in an Earth café" Gwen smiled sweetly.

Arianna grinned back "It's really cool, a bit weird, but I like it"

Gwen laughed "So, how's your pie?"

"Really good thanks, but erm, just wondering?"

"Hmm?" Gwen murmured whilst sipping her coffee.

"Why is there all this stingy stuff on top if you're not supposed to eat it?"

Gwen laughed again almost spitting out her coffee, but she managed to contain herself.

"It's called spinach, honey"

"Hmm, I thought I knew what spinach was…" Arianna pondered.

"And it's okay to eat it" Gwen peered at the little girl picking the spinach off her pie and putting to one side.

"Then why haven't you, and why hasn't anyone else, and if no-one wants to eat it, why do they put it on top?" Arianna asked.

"That's a good point, I don't like spinach, and it seems lots of other people don't either."

"But they still put it on top…?"

"That's the human race for you, we're a bit pointless and we like to deny what's right in front of us" At this they both laughed. "It's true with aliens."

Arianna gave her a funny look "You know, you're an alien to me."

Gwen smiled "I know, I meant humans don't generally believe there's any other life out there."

"They think they're the only race? That's a bit selfish"

Gwen laughed again "Exactly, and here you are in front of me, absolute proof"

They both smiled at each other.

By the end of the day the girls were struggling to carry all the bags that they had accumulated, but Gwen was pretty certain Arianna had enough now to live quite comfortably for a while and live a relatively normal life, besides the fact she was staying in a top secret organisation and that she was alien of course.

They had bought all the clothes Arianna would need, including pyjamas; she had a toothbrush and tooth paste as well as shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. As well as a hairbrush and lots of hair ties and clips, and some bangles and a few nice necklaces. And just to make sure she was entertained, she had lots of books, (including colouring books and colouring pencils), and some nice shoes. Both Gwen and Arianna felt like they were entirely shopped-out, so they decided it was time to head back.

They got back to the hub around 6:00 only to find it all mysteriously quiet, Jack was in his office, Tosh was working on the computers, Owen was in his medical room and Ianto was pouring some tea.

"Erm… Everyone we're back!" Gwen called out, her welsh accent ringing through the large open spaces.

"Hi" they each called out in turn.

Gwen gave a sideways glance to Arianna that clearly said 'I honestly don't know what's going on here'.

"Okay then," Gwen sighed, "let's get all this to your room sweetie."

Arianna nodded and together they made their way to the designated room. They slowly lugged their huge overly pack bags up the stairs and hauled them into the room, Arianna went in first.

"Wow" She gasped. "Gwen what happened, it's totally different!"

"Not what I was expecting" Gwen muttered, a smile tugged at her lips she was utterly bemused.

"Like it then?" Jack's voice from behind them asked. They both turned around to find the whole team crowded by the door with huge grins on their faces.

"Oh, Uncle Jack I love it, thank you!" Arianna grinned and ran up to Jack, he swung her up and gave her a big hug.

"It was Owen, Ianto and Tosh too you know," Jack smiled.

"Thank you everyone" Arianna beamed, "And thank you Gwen for taking me out shopping!"

"You're welcome, dear" Gwen smiled "How about we get your things sorted then, shall we?"

Arianna nodded enthusiastically.

"Who's for pizza?" Ianto asked.

"Make that for all of us, we could do with a break" Jack laughed and walked out the room.

Gwen and Arianna began busily putting stuff away into the light purple wardrobes and cupboards. Tosh came to help them and they made a very efficient team together, Arianna on books, Gwen on clothes and Tosh on everything else, it was hardly any time at all until they had finished putting everything away.

The room that was once an eerie white was now very purple themed, with different planets painted on the walls (which she thought was fantastic, especially since it wasn't just ones in the earth's solar system, but some of the ones she recognised and had visited in different solar systems. The only thing missing was her own planet, but she was quite pleased with what they had done), she had a comfy bed, a large mirror, a wardrobe, a laptop of her own and a huge draw full of her own gadgets. Jack obviously realised that she (like her father) loved fixing and making things, machine and little metal creatures, she loved it, and everything was amazing.

In around an hour or so everyone had finished all their jobs and they were all gathered in what was usually the 'meeting' room, awaiting Jack, who had just gone to accept the pizza delivery.

Arianna was sat next to Owen who was telling her about all the trouble he had putting up the wardrobe and how it had collapsed on him more than once, they were both laughing about it when Jack walked in carrying a whole load of pizza's and not looking to impressed.

"Who ordered pizza under the name Torchwood?" He demanded

Everyone looked around at each other, trying to stifle their laughter.

"Erm that would be me," Ianto said quietly as he picked up the pizza from Jack's hand and put it on the table. "Sorry."


	3. Chapter 3 Deadly times

Chapter 3

The next morning came slowly and Arianna found herself lying on her bed trying to fix a 43rd century remote, although she had no idea what it controlled. She was hoping that once she fixed it she could investigate as to its purpose.

That's when she heard the noise, the clatter. She put down the wires and the pieces of metal and peered out the door. Jack looked deadly serious, he walked fast, and Gwen was next leading someone with a bag over their head, from what she could see it looked like a woman. Tosh went straight to her computer while Ianto and Owen followed Gwen. They were doing their job.

Arianna crept out and went to see Tosh to ask her what was happening. Since she had got here Arianna hadn't yet seen how Torchwood carried out their business, she didn't know how they treated people, or what they called 'aliens'. She walked down the stairs to the computers where Tosh was sitting, busy typing away on the computer.

Tosh turned to Arianna gave her a quick smile and carried on working, so Arianna sat next to her and watched what she was doing. Suddenly the light flickered and then came back on again.

"What was that?" Arianna asked.

"It's a power fluctuation." Tosh said frowning at the screen.

Arianna looked at the screen too; it was a video of Gwen, Jack and this woman in a sealed room. They were asked her questions. No, not asking questions, Jack was demanding answers.

"What happened?" Arianna asked.

"It doesn't matter sweetie, just a ordinary day work" Tosh smiled caringly at Arianna and turned back to monitor the screens.

Arianna frowned for a bit and then asked "But what did she do?"

Tosh sighed. 'Curious mind' she thought 'Too clever for her own good, no doubt'. She turned to Arianna, the little girl's blue eyes widened, she looked so adorable sitting there, a cute dress, white socks and little shoes, she was pale skinned but it was a nice contrast to her long black hair. She looked so human, Tosh just couldn't get her head around it, and even though all her intelligence was alien, Tosh could see that her emotions and her feelings where still very much child-like.

"Two burglars broke into her flat, both murdered, her husband seriously wounded but she was fine. No weapons in the room and yet the victims had severe wounds with what seemed to be a sharp object." Tosh looked at Arianna and hoped she hadn't scared her.

But Arianna didn't look scared, she just looked confused.

"So you think she did it?"

"We're not sure, but we think she's alien." Tosh sighed and turned back to her screen, watching the interrogation.

"But," Arianna paused "not all aliens are bad, are they?"

Tosh turned her head softly and glanced at Arianna.

"Oh no, you're not bad, if that's what you're thinking" Tosh smiled, and so did Arianna. "But not all aliens are quite as lovely as you, unfortunately."

Jack walked in, his face lost in concentration. He stood behind Tosh and Arianna and looked at the screen too.

"Tosh, anything on the body scan?" He asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," She replied, still checking through her data on the screen.

"What about the lights? Power surge?" He enquired.

"Nothing from us…" Tosh trailed off whilst she looked at her figures.

"There was an electro-magnetic build-up around her" Arianna filled in for her.

"Yes," Tosh agreed, "but I can't see how she caused it."

Jack smiled a little and patted Arianna on the head, "Good work" he said nodding at Tosh too.

He turned to leave but was stopped by Owen.

"Same thing happened in the hospital Jack, can't be coincidence." Owen said.

"It's her, I know it is," Jack said aloud, almost as if he was thinking to himself, "Ok, let's do some tests. See who or what we're dealing with."

"I'm on it." Owen replied and both of them walked off, hurrying to do what they had to.

Jack came back and he was setting things up, Tosh went to help him whilst Arianna just watched. They put a chair between the computers, and wired up what seemed to be a mind probe to the computers. Jack added restraining straps to the chair handles.

Ianto came in and saw what they were doing. "You said we weren't allowed to use that again."

Jack carried on sorting things out.

"Remember what happened last time we used it?" Ianto wandered over to the chair.

"That was different. That species has extremely high blood pressure." Jack rushed passed Arianna, who gave him a funny look that he ignored.

"Oh, right, their heads must explode all the time." Ianto said off-handed.

Arianna looks a little shocked.

"What are you doing?" Arianna asked him.

"Just mind-probing, nothing you probably haven't seen before" He replied, "Right, Arianna, you might want to go to your room."

Arianna frowned, "I want to watch," when she saw Jack's reaction her facial expression changed and her eyes widened. "I'll be good, I promise. I wont interfere at all!"

"Fine," Jack sighed "But if I say so, just go straight to your room okay?"

"Okay" she smiled.

Gwen came rushing in; however Ianto sat in the chair and maid himself comfy.

"Jack, you can't do this. What if you're wrong? If she's human, it'll kill her." Gwen said exasperated.

Jack didn't even look at her when he said "I'm not wrong. We have to find out what she is."

Arianna watched as Ianto slid his hands into the straps on the chair.

"Take it easy, Jack. Stop at the first sign of trouble." Tosh said.

"Or the first sign of exploding." Ianto said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Don't kill her," Arianna said "Jack that's not fair!"

"I'm not going to try," He replied but Arianna gave him a funny look. "She's not human and we need to find out what she is, she's already killed two people."

Owen gave Arianna the 'I-know-just-go-with-it' sort of look. So she didn't say anything else. Meanwhile Ianto, who was still in the chair, made a fizzing noise as he pretended to vibrate.

"Hey!" Jack pointed his finger at Ianto, who promptly got up, this time it was Owen's turn to give Ianto an exasperated stare. "Gwen… Bring her up" Jack said nodding to Gwen.

"Okay," she sighed as she went down to fetch the woman.

The woman came in, lead by Gwen, both of whom looked very nervous but of course Gwen tried to look very calm and confident for the other woman's sake. The woman turned to Arianna and frowned.

"Why have you got a child here? Doesn't the law apply to you, you can't keep children here," The lady said, her facing displaying a look of total disgust.

"She's my niece," Jack said quickly, before Arianna could say anything.

"And you let her watch what you do here?" She asked.

"She lives with me here," Jack said. He then nodded to Gwen who helped the woman into the seat.

Tosh placed the mind probe gently on her head, and then strapped her hands to the chair.

"Not too tight, is it?" She asked.

"Its fine, are you sure this is safe?" The woman asked.

"Yep" Gwen said, although she gave a little sideways glance to Jack who ignored her and carried on fiddling with the computer.

"Just try not to, you know, kill me, or anything, OK?" The woman asked. But no-one replied, instead Ianto walked over to her holding a glass of water with a straw in it.

"You'll probably get dehydrated during the probing." Ianto said, she took as sip of the water and nodded a thank you.

Arianna wasn't sure whether it was true that she might get de-hydrated or whether this was a trick to get her to trust them, it seemed unlikely that you would get de-hydrating during a mind probe, but Arianna didn't say anything.

"We're all set" Tosh said directing her gaze to Jack.

"The probe drills down through your consciousness, so if there's anything hidden, it'll pop to the surface." Jack informed the woman.

"Will it hurt?" She asked him.

"Yeah," Jack replied.

"You're bedside manner's rubbish" She commented.

"You should see his manners in bed, they're atrocious. Apparently. So I've heard." Gwen said but soon stopped as Tosh glared at her giving a gaze that gestured towards Arianna.

But Ianto didn't see what Tosh was getting at and carried on from where Gwen left off, "Oh, they are. I remember this one..." Jack did a rather loud 'ahem' which cut him off quite abruptly.

Gwen went and kneeled in front of the woman.

"All right, are you ready Beth?" Gwen asked the woman.

"I suppose" Beth replied.

"OK, we'll do this slowly. Tosh will control the probe, Owen will make sure you're not in any danger, Ianto will have more water when you need it, and I'll be right here, OK?" Gwen tried to reassure Beth.

"What about him?" Beth asked, "What does he do?"

"I'll be watching" Jack stated.

Arianna sat very still, she didn't know what was about to happen, this mind probe has obviously not been tested very well and may even be damaged. It was the first time she had ever seen a proper Torchwood investigation, and she already didn't like it much.

"Are you ready, Beth?" Gwen asked again, just to make sure.

Beth nodded and Gwen mouthed 'All right'.

"Ok, Tosh" Jack said.

Tosh started up the machine and Beth screamed as the probe dug deep into her subconciousness. Arianna tensed up, she hated to see someone in so much pain and found it hard to understand why Jack was letting this happen, but she didn't move.

"Human" Beth muttered.

"Safe" Owen called out checking the monitors.

"Who killed the burglars, Beth?" Jack questioned her.

"I don't know. I…ah!" Beth screamed.

"Safe" Owen called out again.

"What planet are you from?" Jack demanded.

"I'm human!" Beth screeched. "Oh please, please stop! Oh God, It hurts!"

It was horrible to watch, yet Arianna found herself transfixed to the spot. Is this what they would have done to her? If Jack didn't know her Dad, is this how they would have treated her? What made Beth any less of a person than she was? How could they do this to someone?

"Go deeper!" Jack's voice boomed.

Tosh looked a little weary. "Are you sure? She…"

"Do it!" Jack yelled.

Tosh looked at Owen who checked his monitors again.

"Vital signs are all over the place, but still safe," He said.

"Getting an electro magnetic build up again" Tosh murmured as she checked her computer screen.

"Who killed those men?" Jack yelled.

"I don't know! Make it stop!" Beth shouted.

"For God's sake, come on!" Gwen turned on Jack. She started at him her eyes full of fury.

"Go deeper." Jack ordered.

"Safe" Owen said.

"Something's happening to the lights" Ianto commented bitting his lips.

Nobody paid attention to him though, they were all focused on Beth, she was screaming in agony yet Jack insisted on digging deeper. What was he hoping to find? He must know something's there that they can't see.

"The electro-magnetic pulse is off the scale" Tosh commented.

"I don't know how much more she can take" Owen said.

"Jack, we've got to stop this!" Gwen turned to stare at Jack.

Suddenly Beth slumped down, almost as if she was knocked out. Then she sat up straight, her eyes were misty and vacant but that wasn't the only thing strange about her. A compartment in her right arm opened up, it was alien technology some kind of control implanted into her.

"Oh, my God!" Gwen exclaimed, Jack held her back as they all stared at Beth's arm.

"I wouldn't get that close." Jack told Gwen, still pulling her back slightly, "Toshiko, what happened?"

"Hit a buried compartment. Locked away. She couldn't have been aware of it." Tosh informed everyone.

"Who are you?" Jack asked Beth, or at least who we thought was Beth.

"Kayehla Janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal." Beth replied.

"Where are you from?" Arianna asked. She got up and stood in front of Beth.

"Not too close" Jack said this time moving to put an arm on Arianna's shoulders, but Arianna just stood there looking at Beth.

"Kayehla Janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal." Beth replied again.

"How do you like my boots?" Asked Jack.

Beth surprisingly briefly looked down and then back up again before she said "Kayehla Janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal."

Jack grabbed a blue scanner and started to check out the compartment in her arm.

"Jack, what's she saying?" Gwen asked.

"Name, rank, serial number" Arianna cut in before Jack could reply.

"Yeah, and that's all she's gonna say," Jack added.

"How do you two know this?" Tosh asked. It was a question that one of the team was inevitably going to ask soon.

"Cause I know who she is and why she's here." Jack replied. He glanced at Arianna who nodded, they both knew what was coming, Jack had seen it before and Arianna had heard of it before, but they both knew.

Jack through the scanner to Ianto who caught it and placed it on a nearby table.

"Switch off the probe" Jack called out.

Tosh switched off the probe, the compartment in Beth's arm closed, it looked as if it was melting but it was just sealing itself underneath her skin. Her eyes began to focus again. Beth's face changed from being solemn to being pained.

Owen stepped forward and pulled the probe of her head, he took out all the wires and put it away. No-one said anything, they were all still in shock, they stood looking at Beth silently.

"Oh, you weren't lying, that really hurt! Did you find anything?" Beth asked.

Everyone was silent. They looked at each other then at Jack; no-one was sure what to do, or what to tell her.

"Right, team meeting, Gwen put her in a cell please," Jack called.

"A cell, what's happening?" Beth asked.

Gwen tried to reassure her as she helped her out the chair, the rest of the team made their way to the meeting room. Tosh put out her hand, directing it towards Arianna, she smiled gently.

Arianna smiled at her and took her hand, they walked together to the meeting room, along the windy stairs and past all the alien plants and equipment.

Tosh pulled out a seat for Arianna in the room once she had sat down Tosh pushed the seat in and gave Arianna a comforting little pat on the head. Tosh sat next to Arianna and Owen, Ianto and Jack all made their way into the room and found themselves a seat each, with Jack being at the head of the table. It wasn't long after before Gwen came in and took a seat. They all turned and looked at Jack.

"She's a sleeper agent," Jack announced, "It all clicked when I saw the implant."

"A sleeper agent? Who for?" Owen asked.

"But that's not allowed!" Arianna exclaimed, everyone turned to look at her. She continued and tried to explain herself "This is a level 5 planet; to interfere is against galactic law!"

"What?" Owen asked. He raised his eyebrows at Arianna.

"Hmm, I know but I don't think anyone's really interested in helping us," Jack thought out loud. However Jack pulled himself out of his thoughts to answer Owen's earlier question. "No-one knows very much about them, they don't leave survivors. Official designation is Cell 114, They infiltrate planets, adapting their bodies, gathering intelligence, sometimes for years, watching, until they're ready to take over."

"They don't even need an army to take over, once they've gathered enough Intel they can strip the planet bare with only a few agents." Arianna added quietly.

"Okay… that's creepy," Gwen said.

"If we're lucky, she's the first. They send an advance guard to gather Intel. Given false memories so they blend in. She has no idea she's not human. Her real self must have taken over briefly, killed the burglars. Self preservation." Jack informed them.

"Told you she did it," Owen added in Gwen's direction.

"Yeah, The point is, by the time they attack, they know every single thing about the planet. Tosh." Jack nodded towards Tosh to fill in where he left off.

"The implant gathers information. Normal X-rays don't show it. She's projecting a false image. It's got all this data stored inside it." Tosh paused as thousands of pictures flickered across the screen, there were some of military bases, of hospitals and normal streets. "This is a force-field generator." She gestured to the images on her laptop, it was of what looked like an X-ray of Beth's arm and it showed a thin line drawn all the way around the arm, she explained what this was, "It creates an impervious layer above the skin, just a nanometre thick. That's why you couldn't get the needle inside her." Tosh said gesturing towards Owen.

"Right, well... God, look, they even know about us." Owen commented.

"They know more about this place than I do." Ianto thumped the table with his fist, "Nobody knows more than I do."

Everyone's faces were pale and nervous. This could very well be the end of the world if they didn't stop it, they had to stop it. Even Arianna understood the importance of this incidence despite not knowing much about the human race.

"What if there's more of them? What are we gonna do about this?" Gwen asked, breaking the ice.

"For a start... I think we should tell her." Jack said.

One by one they all turned and left the room to go about their business until there was only Jack and Arianna left. Jack stood up and walked to the glass wall, from there he could look down and see most of the hub, he could watch each member of his team busily at work.

Arianna stayed sitting down, she was watching Jack, wondering what he was going to do. She may have known about those creatures but this was still new to her, saving the world, it wasn't as fantastic as Jack had described in his stories with her Dad. It was much worse, because what he didn't describe was the bit that was happening now, the waiting and wondering and thinking about how to get out of this situation. The danger loomed over them but they didn't know where to begin, or how to end it.

Jack then turned back around and walked forward a couple of paces. He faced Arianna and managed to muster a troubled smile.

"If you have any bright ideas, don't hesitate to let me know," Jack joked.

Arianna smiled, "We'll think of something, something really clever,"

This time Jack grinned, then his smile fell. "Let's just hope she's the first one," he said. "But enough of this for now," He said, "you're supposed to be having fun and being a kid for once,"

"I don't mind helping out," Arianna stated.

"I know, but I'll call you if we need you, which we probably will later," Jack winked, "For now, just go and enjoy yourself."

Arianna smiled and skipped out of the room and down to her room to finish building her little invention. The bits of wire and metal were just where she left them, screwdrivers and little hammers she had everything here. She fiddled with the little square pieces of metal as she tried to place them correctly into the holder, it required precision and patience but she loved building things like this so she didn't mind.

Suddenly the lights switched off.

Arianna put everything carefully down on her bed; she then got up and tried to feel her way to the door. The lights kept flickering on and off as she stood in the doorway, afraid to go any further in case she fell down a flight of stairs.

Alarms were beeping everywhere and red lights began to flash, she could hear a lot of movement as everyone tried to sort out the systems.

"Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" Jack yelled as he stormed out of his office.

"Oh shit!" Owen yelled back.

"Language!" Jack retorted noticing Arianna was looking out of her room.

It was hard to make out what was going on because all that could be seen was shapes the sizes of bodies were rushing around.

"What happened?" Jack asked.

"Beth's gone." Gwen was tapping into the computer she brought up the CCTV footage of the empty cell in which they had frozen Beth to stop her from activating and hurting anyone.

"I thought she was frozen!" Jack exclaimed.

"She was!" Owen replied whilst emerging from the medical room, "All her vitals were at zero!"

"Checking systems, command history…" Tosh murmured as she sorted through lots of files on the computer.

"What did she do? Is it a virus, a lockdown?" Jack asked slightly panicked.

"No, she just turned off the lights." Tosh replied.

The lights started to switch themselves back on again.

"What is it with her and light bulbs?" Jack asked, more to himself than anyone in particular.

Arianna sat on the top of the stairs and watched what was happening below.

"She went through the tunnels", Tosh called out.

"Time to change the locks again." Ianto's sarcastic welsh accent rang out.

"She knew everything about this place, it was all in her arm. The tunnels, layout, security codes. She could've shut us down, blown us up, anything!" Jack said desperately.

"She didn't," Gwen put in afterwards.

"I swear she was frozen." Owen tried to convince himself.

"Tosh, you switched off the transceiver?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Tosh replied quickly checking her data again.

"Are you sure?" He asked, his eyes searching hers for answers he couldn't quite retrieve.

"Well, I was until you asked. Unless there was another false image." Tosh reasoned.

"Hang on, hang on." Owen called out to everyone, "Everything about her was a lie. All of her vital signs were a false image. She can fool the equipment, tell it what we're expecting to see, so she gets scared and it projects an increased heart rate, we try and freeze it and it does the opposite."

"Simulating that much information would need a huge amount of energy." Tosh said.

"Probably why she had such a large electro-magnetic field around her." Arianna pointed out.

Owen waved his finger about as if to say 'EXACTLY' and then he continued. "That's why the lights blew when she got upset."

"So, what's she doing? Did we activate her?" Tosh asked.

"She couldn't be activated. If she was, we'd all be dead. We took her off the network. She has some other agenda." Jack commented.

Suddenly it all clicked, it made sense. They each turned to each other; their mouths hanging wide open. Jack snapped to attention.

"Gwen with me, we're going to the hospital, we need to get her back!" He yelled as he stormed towards the door.

Gwen nodded silently and ran after him leaving a few bewildered looks behind them.

"Let me know if you get anything!" Jack called back, directing this at Tosh.

Tosh nodded as the large door rolled shut. Owen went back to his medical room to check his data was correct muttering to himself as he went. His head bobbed up and down but slowly more downwards as he descended the stairs. Tosh looked at him briefly before she went back to typing again, checking through files and monitoring activity both from the rift and any unusual energy.

Ianto walked up the stairs and sat next to Arianna.

She sat there in shock, not sure what to do. Was this really the end? It seemed like Planet Earth was on the brink of invasion, after all these sleeper agents were notorious for wiping out civilisations and leaving no trace. Is that what was going to happen now? She'd only just got here and already there was severe danger, on a planet-wide scale.

Ianto put his arm around Arianna and pulled her close. She clung to him as he comfortingly rubbed her back.

"Hey," He said softly, "It's going to be alright." He pulled her a little closer, "We're tougher than we look."

For a brief moment Arianna smiled before fear and sadness took over again and the smile faded.

"I've already seen one war," She paused as a tear rolled down her cheek, "I don't want that to happen again."

"It wont," Ianto sighed, "we're going to fix this."

Ianto had seen it there, he really realised; Arianna may be very clever and an alien too, but she was still a little girl, alone and lost and scared. He picked her up and she put her arms around his shoulders as he carried her down the stairs. She placed her head on his chest and he placed his hand reassuringly on her back to hold her close to him.

Suddenly there was a large tremor and some dust fell from the ceiling.

"What's going on?" Tosh asked loudly. As some more alarms rang out.

The shaking stopped and Owen raced up from the medical room. Once everyone had done their brief 'are you okay's and 'yeah, I'm fine's Tosh quickly began typing again to find out what the explosion was. Owen went over to help her while Ianto (who was still carrying Arianna) looked at another screen.

"Petrol tanker. Looks like someone wanted to take out the M4 link road for some..." Tosh paused before she hurriedly continued, "No! It's not the road. There's an underground fuel pipeline. It's the special fuel supply for the military, they use it in emergencies."

"Not any more." Owen said, "Hold on. I've got a report coming through. Patrick Grainger's been murdered."

"Who?" Tosh asked.

"Leader of the Council, stabbed several times in the chest, and once in the forehead. Sound familiar?" Owen continued.

"Why would anyone want to kill him?" Gwen asked through her comm., which was linked to the speakers back in the hub.

"He's also the city' co-ordinator." Ianto added, "Takes charge of the city in case of major emergencies; has all the security protocols."

"Well how do you know that?" Owen asked sceptically.

"I know everything," Ianto replied in all seriousness. Arianna gave a quiet giggle. "And it says so on the bottom of the screen." He added.

Then Jack's voice came over the system, "Tosh, Owen, it's starting, it's happening right now."

There was another crackle.

"Agh…" Tosh said in frustration.

"What is it?" Ianto asked.

"All the comm's have gone down, we have no way of contacting Jack," Tosh said in despair.

Owen began busily fiddling with his mobile phone. He kept dialling number's and trying to call them, but the phone wouldn't ring.

"Tosh, you're good with technology," Owen said, "Can't you just hook something up?"

"No. I can't 'just hook something up'! The entire telephone network is down!" She said furiously.

"What about a mobile connection?" Owen asked whilst still fiddling with his mobile.

Tosh gave him a look that clearly said 'are you an idiot?'.

"The entire telephone network is down!" She repeated.

Ianto carried Arianna up to the platform where Owen and Tosh looked like they were about to kill each other. And in true Ianto style he said, "Mobiles, landlines, tin cans with bits of string. Everything. Absolutely everything. No phones, phones all broken."

He paused while he held Arianna with one arm and started to mime a phone ringing with the other "Hello? Anyone there?" he asked as if talking on a phone, then he stared at Owen, "No, cause the phones aren't working."

"What about we try…" Owen began but Tosh soon cut him off.

"There is no way of getting in touch with Jack! No way!"

Then a quiet voice from a radio called out, "Tosh, Owen, can you hear me?"

Tosh ran over and put the old fashioned micro phone to her mouth and said, "Jack; Thank God. What happened?"

Jack's reply was, "There's a cell, its active. Four including Beth, two are dead. We're tracking the last guy now. If we can get to him before he does anything, we can stop this."

Tosh breathed a sigh of relief, just one left. Owen, Ianto and Arianna felt the same. Although the tension in the room hadn't decreased.

"What can I do?" Tosh asked.

"He's heading for an abandoned farm just outside the city. I need to know what's out there." Jack said.

"Where the hell's he going? There's nothing there!" Owen exclaimed.

"Nothing on the surface," Tosh said as she rushed over to her computer. Ianto went back to fetch a book and started flicking through the pages, Arianna got down and stood beside him as he looked through the information.

"This is as far back as they go. There used to be a coal mine in the cliff. The army sealed it off in the 40s, doesn't say why." Ianto said.

"Let me see if I can get into the military files." Tosh said after putting on her glasses.

Within seconds she had got access and had entered the files. "Come on guys, that wasn't even difficult." She smiled. "You disappoint me."

Ianto and Arianna made their way over to Tosh's computer along with Owen who was now looking over her shoulder.

"It's almost obscene what you do to security systems." Ianto commented.

Then Tosh's smile vanished, "Oh, God."

"What is it?" Jack asked over the radio, which had now been linked into the speaker system so that the team could talk freely and Jack could hear them.

"The mineshaft. The military are using it for storage. Nuclear warheads. Ten of them." Tosh paused, "Nobody's supposed to know, not even us."

Ianto picked up Arianna again who had been silent for a while now, she curled up in his arms.

"Please tell me you can stop this." Tosh said to Jack.

"Going as fast as we can. If we don't, we won't feel a thing. We're all at the centre of the blast radius." Jack said.

Arianna buried her head in Ianto's jacket, he kept his arms tightly around her.

"That's comforting." Tosh said.

"Come on, have a little faith! With a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?" Jack said, the grin leaking through his words.

Ianto cleared his throat, "He is dashing, you have to give him that."

"And what if they can't stop it?" Owen asked.

Ianto gave him a sharp look and then looked down at Arianna who was still clinging on tightly.

"They'll stop it." Tosh said giving a nod to Ianto.

"Yeah, but if they can't?" Owen said, trying to be realistic.

Ianto covered Arianna's ears and then he said, "Then it's all over,"

Owen sighed "Let's all have sex,"

Ianto through him a look as he walked away carrying Arianna, "And I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse."

Ianto carried her up to her room and gently placed her on her bed. Ianto noticed all the bits and pieces on her desk and tried to distract her from what was going on at the moment.

"What's all this then?" He asked.

"Just something I'm building," She said plainly.

"What's it going to be?" He got up and admired the work, this was quite advanced stuff she was making, he'd never seen anything like it.

"A robot friend." She said with a smile.

Ianto turned to look at her, "Aren't I a good enough friend? What do you need a Robot friend for?"

"No, no, no, no, no. You're a fantastic friend but my little Robot's going to do loads of really cool things that humans can't." She said as she walked over to Ianto and the Robot 'to-be'.

"Right." He paused. "Like what?"

"Like…" She thought about it, "Identifying objects and substances, and de-arming bombs and things like that, useful things."

"Why do you need a robot that can disarm bombs and identify unknown substances?" Ianto asked playfully, "You're not some mad scientist are you?"

Arianna laughed, "No, I just thought it would be fun,"

"Sounds great," Ianto said, "So long as you still want to play with me…" He smiled, "We never did get that game of 'operation'."

"What's 'operation'?" She asked,

"This is exactly why I wanted to play it with you."

But a loud sound of doors opening and footsteps on the metal frames interrupted their talk. Ianto and Arianna both rushed out of the room to see Jack, Gwen and Beth all standing there.

"Did you miss us?" Jack asked with a cheeky grin on his face.

An hour or so later Arianna walked out her room to fetch something to fix her robot with. She noticed out of the corner of her eye, Gwen and Beth on the railings.

Beth's artificial arm had turned from an implant to a nasty looking blade and she held it to Gwen's throat. Arianna gasped and ran down to Tosh who was the closest to her, she stood behind her as she pulled out her gun, as did Jack, Ianto and Owen. As much as she hated guns she didn't really mind right now.

"I won't let you freeze me!" Beth shouted. "I'll kill you all!"

Owen yelled out, "Let her go! Let her go!"

"No! Wait, wait, wait, don't shoot! It's a trick. She won't hurt me." Gwen tried to plead with them.

"Move away from her now!" Tosh called.

"Everybody, calm down! Beth...you don't want to do this. Let Gwen go." Jack tried to reason with her.

"I'll kill her first, then all of you, then the rest of your miserable species!" Beth said loudly.

"Beth, please! They will kill you. You have proved to be better than that, you helped us to stop the invasion. You can be human. Please Beth!" Gwen cried.

Beth pulled back her arm, ready to strike Gwen. Within seconds 4 people had shot multiple times into Beth's body. She fell limp to the ground and as soon as Gwen had gotten over the shock she crawled over to Beth's dead body.

"She wanted you to shoot her! She used her last shred of humanity to do this." Gwen shouted.

Owen ran up the spiral stairs to Gwen before he told her, "We couldn't take that chance. She must have known that."

"She did." Jack dropped his aim, "She just wanted to make it easier for us."

Jack walked up to see Gwen.

It was all over for now.

Ianto came round to Arianna, he took her hand and led her back up to her room, she had seen enough terror for today, he thought.


	4. Chapter 4 A special day, not quite right

Chapter 4

The weeks gradually turned into months and Torchwood's business carried on as usual, with stray aliens, new technology and a small disaster every now and again. Arianna had begun to give up hope of finding her father but she was starting to feel more of the 'Torchwood family', Gwen had even asked her to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. Of course at the time Arianna had no idea what a bridesmaid was, once Gwen had explained she was soon delighted that Gwen had asked her.

Ianto had made it his official job to educate Arianna about humans, which she quite enjoyed, it was all interesting and foreign but thrilling too. Instead of teaching Arianna, Tosh was in fact learning from her, they spent most of their time discussing alien artefacts they found and they enjoyed trying to solve the mystery of new equipment together. Owen on the other hand wasn't interested in teaching or learning anything, his contribution to helping Arianna fit in, was to take her out every Monday and Tuesday, get a takeaway of some sort and watch a movie. Obviously he wasn't careless enough to show her inappropriate movies, in that respect he treated her like a child still, so they watched 'family-friendly' movies. Gwen was ever caring and liked to spend quality time with Arianna, she often stayed round Gwen's house and they'd have a girlie night together, to Arianna it was sort of like having a fantastic big sister. Rhys didn't mind either, he quite liked Arianna and was pleased when Gwen made her a bridesmaid, of all the people at Torchwood, Rhys definitely got on best with Arianna.

And then there was Jack. Or Uncle Jack as he preferred to be called, he and Arianna spent the most time together, probably because they stayed at the hub all the time together, and they had become quite close, almost as if Jack was really her Uncle. It was easier for them to bond, after all the things they new about aliens. It was also the one time Arianna could talk about her Dad, and hear stories about him. Jack always had plenty of stories.

But that all passed quickly, until it was the morning of Gwen's wedding.

Arianna woke up at about 6:00, she was very excited, she'd never been to a human wedding before and was thrilled to be a part of it. She looked at her deep red dress that was hanging on the door, and grinned.

As she ran down the kitchen area, Ianto stood there making a cup of tea. She sat on one of the stools, still grinning.

"Well, good morning," Ianto said smiling.

"Morning," Arianna replied.

"You're up early," Jack commented as he strolled in the room.

"You're up earlier," Arianna said.

"Well, we all know its Gwen's big day and we want everything to run smoothly so I thought I'd get up earlier." Jack said.

"He's lying," Ianto added, "Gwen got bitten by an alien that reproduces using an exo-biological insemination."

"Is she alright?" Arianna asked.

"See, I told you not to tell her, she's going to be really worried now," Jack moaned to Ianto.

"Thought it was best that she knew," Ianto replied.

"Well, is she?" Arianna asked again, staring at the two of them.

"I don't know, just going to check on her now, with Owen," Jack replied before walking off, "be good for Ianto while I'm gone!" He called out.

"'Course you will," Ianto smiled, "Right, what do you want for breakfast then?"

After breakfast was finished Arianna got dressed and ready and waited for news of Gwen, Tosh had carefully put her dress in a box for her, so that if the wedding was going to go ahead she'd be ready. Tosh was going to the wedding too, but she hadn't changed yet either, they were all waiting to see if Gwen was alright.

A few hours later Arianna wandered down to the centre of the hub to find Tosh at her workstation talking to Owen, Jack and Ianto.

"Is Gwen alright?" She asked.

"So far, she's still going ahead with the wedding," Owen said.

"Which is fine, as long as she doesn't go into labour at the altar. Rhys might forgive her going down the aisle pregnant, but not giving birth to a razor-toothed monster that eats half his family." Jack said.

"Could that happen?" Ianto asked.

Owen looked sceptical, "Well, look, the pregnancy's advanced and we're not familiar with the species."

"Which is why you, Owen, need to open up the guy with the teeth and make sure  
there's no surprises." Jack said.

"I'm on it," Owen called, as he strode out the room to his medical station.

"Tosh, you've got an early pass to the wedding." Jack said, and Tosh smiled. "So you might as well take Arianna with you, and keep an eye on Gwen," he added.

Tosh nodded and took Arianna's hand as they went up to her room.

"I'm just going to get changed," Tosh said to Arianna, "You can change when you get there, we have plenty of time, I'll come and get you in a few minutes."

Arianna sat on her bed and looked at the box next to her, it contained her bridesmaid's dress that she had been looking forward to wearing for weeks. She had been looking forward to the wedding for week but despite this she would rather it was cancelled in exchange for the assurance of Gwen's safety. But she knew how much this all meant to Gwen and Gwen would never cancel the wedding, even though she had to cover up the fact she had an alien in her tummy.

20 minutes later Tosh walked back into Arianna's room, she looked stunning, she had her hair nicely tied up with a few strands flowing down and she was wearing an amazing dress.

Arianna smiled and put down the book she was reading.

"You look beautiful," Arianna complimented.

"Thanks honey, now let's get going shall we?" Tosh smiled and picked up Arianna's box with one hand. She rested her bag on the box and put another box underneath that presumably had Gwen's new wedding dress in it and took Arianna's hand with her spare hand.

They walked out the hub together and made their way to Tosh's car. Tosh placed the boxes carefully in the back of the car and then went to check that Arianna was strapped in and ready before they headed off.

Arianna had been on Earth for a while now but she still hadn't gotten used to the idea of sitting in cars she found it quite bizarre that they used this belt to hold them in. She also found it bizarre at how slow it was. She had been on trips with her Dad to Galaxies the other side of the Universe and it only took a few seconds or minutes at the most. Yet here she was sitting in a car, it took them an hour to get to the venue since there had been so many traffic jams and restricted speed zones. Not that they were in any hurry, they had arrived quite early, just enough time to get everything sorted.

Tosh carried the boxes again and took Arianna's hand as they entered the building. It was beautiful, made of stone with plants growing around the windows, it looked reasonably old but still beautiful. The inside was done-up well and it all looked rather formal and delicate.

As soon as the two had walked in the room a man came over to them.

"Woah. All right, love? You've got a couple of big boxes. Do you want a hand with  
that?" He asked Tosh.

"Uh. No, thank you. I'm fine." Tosh replied, she gave a brief fake smile and headed to the reception desk pulling Arianna who was a bit bemused by the strange man.

"Are you going to the wedding?" The man asked Tosh.

"Yes, I'm a friend of Gwen's," Tosh replied trying to ignore him.

"And the little girl?" He asked indicating to Arianna who gave a frown.

"She's a bridesmaid," Tosh replied.

"Oh, must be Arianna, the only bridesmaid I haven't met," He said almost as if he was proud of his involvement in the wedding preparations, "So you all excited then? How exactly do you know Gwen and Rhys by the way?" The man asked Arianna.

Arianna just stared at him and then turned to Tosh with questioning eyes.

"Arianna is Gwen's bosses' niece," Tosh filled in and gave Arianna a separate look that said 'just forget him'.

"Right, not really the sort of person you have as your bridesmaid though, weird, bosses' niece, I'm surprised Rhys agreed to that." The man jabbered on.

Arianna frowned again and this time turned away from the man to stand close to Tosh who put the boxes on the desk.

"Well, I'm Banana. I suppose you can tell why." The man/Banana said.

"You come up in spots and go soft quickly?" Tosh replied completely unimpressed by this man.

"I'm actually the best man." Banana replied.

"Evolution is full of surprises." Tosh sighed looking down at Arianna who let out a small giggle.

"I get to check everything personally, right. Uh, the disco, cake, flowers, seating." Banana declared.

Tosh ignored him and asked the receptionist, "Bridal suite?"

The person behind the front desk replied, "First floor, on your left," whilst gesturing up the flight of stairs. Tosh nodded a thank you before grabbing the boxes again, she looked behind her briefly to check Arianna was following, which she was so Tosh carried on and began to ascend the stairs.

"So do you fancy a little drink later?" Banana asked Tosh.

"Sorry, I'm intolerant to vasoactive amines." Tosh called down without looking behind her at Banana who was stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up.

"Huh?" He asked.

"She meant banana's make her vomit," Arianna called out.

Tosh smiled at the girl beside her and they exchanged a pleased expression. They carried on up the stairs till they found Gwen's room. Tosh knocked on the door.

"Hi," Tosh said.

"Hi," Gwen replied, "How's my little bridesmaid?"

Arianna smiled, "I'm good, how are you?"

"I've been better," Gwen sighed.

"Jack sent me over with this." Tosh said indicating to the larger box.

"Come on in," Gwen said to the both of them, she let them in and then shut the door behind them.

Tosh placed the boxes carefully on the floor one next to each other, she opened the left one that contained Arianna's dress and pulled the dress out and handed it to Arianna.

"Go and put it on honey," Tosh said, Arianna smiled.

"Let us know if you need any help," Gwen smiled, "Bathroom's through there," she pointed to a half open door.

Arianna smiled and walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind herself before changing into the beautiful dress. Meanwhile Gwen opened her box and pulled out the white dress.

"It's beautiful." Gwen gasped.

"And, I don't blame you for telling Jack and Owen to stick a postponement.  
I think it's wonderful you're getting married, whatever." Tosh said.

"Tosh, thank you" Gwen said sincerely.

"Very lucky."

"Yes," Gwen agreed. She looked over to see Tosh who now had her eyes lowered and was looking a little sad.

"You know, Tosh, it'll happen for you, one day. There's always Owen..." Gwen said hopefully.

"I don't think so. 'In sickness and in health, till death do us part'? That's going to sound like a bad joke, isn't it?" Tosh sighed.

Just then Arianna walked out the bathroom in her dress. Both ladies gasped and then smiled.

"You look wonderful," Gwen said and Tosh nodded. "Everyone's going to be looking at you not me," Gwen joked playfully.

"Don't say that," Arianna sat next to Gwen and gave her a hug, "I think you're beautiful,"

Gwen smiled and pulled her into a hug as well, "Thank you."

"Um, I'll let you get on. If you need me, I'll be downstairs. Good luck." Tosh said, "Do you want me to look after Arianna?"

"No, no, she can stay here for a bit, then she can meet the other bridesmaid's. Thanks Tosh," Gwen said.

Tosh nodded and walked out the room.

"Right let's do your hair," Gwen laughed happily.

Arianna shook her head, "No you don't need to, my hair's fine, I want to help you get ready."

"Aw, thank you honey, but I have plenty of time to get ready, and as lovely as your hair is I'm going to style it anyway." Gwen giggled.

They both smiled at each other and Gwen began busying away at Arianna's long straight black hair. By the time she had finished Arianna had stunning waves throughout her hair and a cute clip pinned in the side to hold back some of the front.

Just as they finished there was a knock at the door. Gwen opened it to find her two other bridesmaids and best friends.

"My God! It's true!" One of them exclaimed.

Gwen sighed and ushered them in. They then saw Arianna sitting on the floor gazing up at them innocently.

"Isn't she cute," The other one said.

Gwen laughed as Arianna pulled a face, "Girls, this is Arianna, Arianna this is Trina and Carrie, together you are my three bridesmaids."

"So this is the mysterious Arianna," Carrie said.

"How come we've never met her before Gwen?" Trina asked.

"She stays with her Uncle a lot, a busy little bee aren't you," Gwen smiled as Arianna came and stood next to her and held her hand. Arianna peered up at Gwen's face.

"What does that mean?" She asked.

"What does what mean?" Gwen said confused.

"You called me a busy little bee," Arianna's brow furrowed.

"You've never heard that before?" Trina said shocked.

Arianna shook her head nervously.

"It's alright, it's just a saying people use, it just means you're busy honey, nothing bad, don't worry," Gwen reassured her.

"Oh."

Carrie and Trina gave each other a look saying, 'how dumb is this girl?'

"Can you too look after her for a while? I need to have a few minutes and I can't leave her on her own." Gwen asked them.

Arianna looked up at Gwen and pleading with her eyes not to leave her with them, but Gwen sighed and squeezed her hand.

"Um, sure, aren't her parent's coming, or Uncle or whatever?" Trina asked.

"No, at least not for a while, and because you're bridesmaid's too, I'm asking you, please?" Gwen asked.

"Sure," Carrie said, "I looked after my niece for a whole week, I think the two of us can manage a few hours,"

Gwen smiled to say thanks and turned to Arianna who looked rather scared.

"All the fightening things you've seen and you're scared of leaving me for a few hours," Gwen whispered.

Arianna smiled briefly but clung to Gwen. "It's alright," Gwen tried to reassure her, "They'll take good care of you,"

"Let's go and have a look at the gardens, shall we?" Carrie said in a sweet voice and held out her hand for Arianna to take. Gwen urged her forward and Arianna took Carrie's hand cautiously.

"Come on," Trina said, she opened the door for them. "See you later Gwen," she added with a wink.

Gwen smiled and watched them walk out, she hoped Arianna would be alright with them, they weren't the greatest role models, but they were nice enough. The two older bridesmaids took Arianna down to the gardens, they mainly talked to each other rather than Arianna but she didn't mind, in fact she preferred it that way.

"Oh, it's nearly time already, come on, let's go, we don't want Gwen to walk down the isle without us," Trina said snapping Arianna out of a little trance she'd made for herself so she didn't have to hear their constant wittering.

They hurried to the door where Gwen and her father were just arriving, Gwen smiled nervously and Arianna smiled back, Gwen looked amazing despite having a huge lump on her front. Gwen and her father went in first with Carrie and Trina behind and Arianna behind that, a beautiful formation. The ceremony began smoothly and Arianna took a seat next to Gwen's mother to watch as Rhys and Gwen stood beside each other. It was all perfect.

"Rhys and Gwen have chosen to solemnize their commitment before you..." The Priest announced.

"But first the law requires me to ask of you all, if there is anyone here..." He continued as Gwen and Rhys held each other's hands.

"...who knows of any reason why these two may not marry?"

The room went silent as expected and Gwen and Rhys looked at each other adoringly, Arianna looked around at this bizarre set up but just as she was thinking about how weird humans were the large doors swung open and in came Jack, Ianto and Owen.

"STOP!" Yelled Jack.

Everyone turned around to find the three men panting at the back of the room.

"STOP IT!"

Jack ran up the isle.

"Stop the wedding!" He shouted.

"Hold on!" He panted as he made his way to Gwen.

"Jack?" She asked not impressed at all by their entrance.

"Gwen, believe me, I'm sorry. But this has to stop now." Jack apologised.

Arianna looked on the situation nervously, something was wrong, Jack wouldn't stop the wedding if something wasn't seriously wrong.

"I just knew that baby wasn't Rhys's!" A woman stood up and yelled.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Rhys whispered to Jack furiously.

"Jack, I've told you, I am marrying Rhys!" Gwen said defiantly.

"Not now. You can't." Jack said solemnly.

"Butt out, Jack! You've screwed things up enough between me and Gwen. You are  
not going to mess up our wedding!" Rhys said sternly.

"Listen, I am trying to save Gwen's life. Yours, too." Jack replied.

"What's going on, Jack?" Gwen asked.

"Can we do this somewhere else?" He asked.

This time Rhys was the first to react, he pulled Gwen and they began walking back down the isle, Jack quickly followed. Arianna wasn't staying in here with all these humans by herself, so she ran after them and quickly caught up with Jack who was heading to Gwen's bridal suite.

"What's happening?" Arianna asked nervously.

"Owen found something nasty," Jack replied, then he looked down at Arianna and smiled, "But don't worry, we'll sort it," He added with a grin.

Owen and Ianto had gone to find Tosh whilst Arianna followed Jack into Gwen's room, once they entered Rhys looked menacingly at Jack and Gwen looked a bit frustrated.

"This better be worth it," Rhys growled.

"Just listen," Jack insisted after closing the door. "The mother of the alien-baby is here, looking for Gwen,"

"There's two of them?" Gwen exclaimed.

"Ma and Pa Nostrovite. They hunt in pairs. But childbirth is more of a ...  
three-way. He finds and impregnates a host. She then comes in like the midwife from hell, hanging around, watching, waiting, until the time is right. Then it gets messy." Jack explained.

"So you think she's near?" Rhys asked.

"She's a shape-shifter, Rhys. She could be out there making small talk with  
your mom and dad." Jack said.

Gwen sighed and sat on the bed, Arianna sat next to her and Jack stood close. Rhys decided to stand by the door in case anyone came in, but he could still hear their conversation.

"We're not stopping the wedding." Gwen told Jack.

"Gwen, there isn't a choice here." Jack said.

"Ever since I've met you, Jack, all Rhys has had to put up with, with me, is  
crap. The lies. The danger. The complications. But he's stood by me. Who else would do that?" Gwen stood up. "Who else would marry me knowing that I am carrying some kind of monster inside me? I love him, and I'm going to marry him, today."

Rhys stepped in, "Thanks. But it is my wedding, too. Don't I get a say?"

Suddenly a woman screamed, and Jack ran out the room. Arianna's instinct told her to follow Jack and she got up to leave but Gwen held her hand, "No sweetie, it might be dangerous, stay with me,"

They got up together and Rhys ran ahead, Arianna walked slowly beside Gwen who was doing her best to waddle to where the scream could be heard. Just as they went into a room Carrie ran out screaming and ran down the corridor. They went into the room to find a mangled body on the floor and Tosh, Ianto and Owen were there with the man they had seen earlier, Banana.

"Ianto, after the girl. I need this contained." Jack yelled and immediately Ianto chased after the girl.

As soon as Rhys caught sight of the remains he panicked, "Oh, God! I want Gwen out of here now, Jack!"

Arianna felt tears come to her eyes when she saw that poor man on the floor, or what was left of the man. It must have been so painful for him.

"Jack, I've seen the shape-shifter. It's a woman. She's in black." Tosh said.

Jack nodded trying to think of what to do next. Then he heard Ianto's voice over the comm. System, 'Jack, I'm afraid the situation is uncontained.'

"Okay, Ianto, get to the SUV, jam the phone lines. The last thing we need is someone calling the police." Jack told him, he then looked at Arianna and decided it was best she stayed with him, "Arianna, stay close to me unless I tell you other wise, okay?"

Arianna nodded and Jack gave her an appreciative pat on the head before he turned to Tosh, "Tosh, you're with me. We'll find that woman in black. Gwen, Owen needs to operate, now."

Rhys looked disturbed by this, "I want Gwen safe Jack, now!"

Jack looked furiously stressed and glared at Rhys, "I want her safe, too, Rhys. So we do what I say!"

Gwen tried to mediate between them and calm the situation, "Rhys, Jack knows what he's doing, darling, okay?"

Rhys huffed but didn't say anything, he just waited for Jack to come up with some sort of reasonable plan.

"Look, if we run, the Nostrovite will be waiting for us. And we're running out  
of time." Jack informed them.

"What's the plan, Jack?" Gwen prompted him.

Owen held up his backpack and said, "I've got an idea."

"Then I'm staying here, okay?" Rhys demanded.

"Fine! Tosh with me. Arianna." Jack called as he stormed out the door. Tosh grabbed Arianna's hand and they ran after him.

"Move!" Jack yelled as he ran into the main room where all the guests were waiting. Tosh and Arianna ran in after him, all the guests stared at them as they entered.

"I need everyone to stay calm and do exactly as I tell you." Jack said calmly but very loudly so everyone was aware of what was going on.

"And who the hell are you?" A man who Arianna knew to be Rhys' father, asked.

"Torchwood" was all Jack replied.

"Gwen's Torchwood? You mean you're real?" Gwen's father exclaimed in disbelief.

Tosh suddenly spotted the woman and grabbed her gun and aimed it at a brown haired woman wearing black.

"Jack! There she is!" Tosh yelled.

"Everybody down!" Jack shouted as he too raised his gun at the woman.

The female Nostrovite stood up and turned to face them, her eyes glowed a deadly red and she displayed a row of teeth that looked deadly sharp.

"Nasty." Arianna whispered to no-one in particular.

As soon as the guests caught sight of her face they started screaming and panicking, they ran about the room trying to get out the way. Jack and Tosh began to fire at the female Nostrovite but she turned, ran and jumped out the window, Tosh, Jack and Arianna ran over to see what happened, but the female Nostrovite just kept running across the lawn.

"Arianna stay here!" Jack yelled back as he began to chase the Nostrovite.

"But…" Arianna began to argue but Tosh cut her off, "We'll be back soon, keep safe."

Arianna was about to run after Tosh anyway when Trina caught her hand, "You'll be alright here darling," she said thinking that Arianna was just as horrified and shocked about seeing this alien as she was, when in truth Arianna was just scared for Gwen.

Arianna sat next to Trina as they waited for any news on what was happening, all the guests were rushing around but none of them could make any contact with either the police or anyone else for that matter, Arianna smiled to herself, good old Ianto.

About an hour later the team made their way into the room again, but in front of them walked Gwen and Rhys, who looked a little messy but very happy.

"Well then, let's finish the service shall we?" Jack called out.

Everyone was too shocked to say anything and instead they made their way to there seats, Gwen and Rhys meanwhile, made their way to the front again. Arianna smiled and ran up to Jack who was now grinning. He hoisted her up and gave her a big hug.

"Told you we'd sort it didn't I," He grinned.

Arianna laughed and put her arms around his neck, he sat down with Arianna on his lap and Ianto, Tosh and Owen soon followed suit by sitting down too. In fact everyone was now sat down and the wedding began again.

"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, ahem... Gwen..." Gwen paused and glanced back at Jack, Arianna, Owen, Tosh and Ianto before turning to Rhys again and finishing, "Elizabeth... Cooper..."

"Do take thee, Rhys Alun Williams, to be my lawful wedded husband." The priest prompted Gwen.

Gwen giggled before continuing, "Do take thee, Rhys Alun Williams, to be my lawful wedded husband."

Gwen put the ring on Rhys' finger before she whispered to him, "Come here,"

They kissed and the audience started clapping and cheering happily. Arianna looked confused and turned to Jack with one eyebrow raised. "Just go with it," he replied with a smirk and began clapping too.

Gwen an Rhys turned round holding each other's hands to see everyone clapping them, they turned to each other before they made their way out of the room. Once they were out of sight the guests gradually followed.

"Where are we going?" Arianna asked.

"To have fun," Jack replied picking her up again, they made their way out the room to where everyone had now congregated in a different room full of round tables and food.

They had a lovely meal and people were happy and excited, most were starting to get a little drunk, but that's when the dancing began, music started playing and people gradually made their way to the dance floor.

Owen turned to Tosh, "Ah, you ready to see that dead man dance, Tosh?" He held out his hand for her, "come on,"

Tosh smiled and took his hand as they made their way to the dance floor to join all the other couple that were now dancing. Ianto turned to Arianna who was looking slightly bored, this was obviously not her scene, she looked more interested studying bits of wiring than she did here. So he sighed and asked her, "Want another drink?"

She smiled and nodded, so he picked her up and took her over to get another orange juice, she seemed to love that stuff. Arianna was enjoying being with Ianto but she noticed he was slightly pre-occupied. She watched him as he gazed at Jack dancing with Gwen.

"Can I get down?" Arianna asked, as Ianto was still holding her.

"Oh, sure," He smiled and placed her gently on the ground, he then looked up only to focus his eyes on Jack again.

"Go on then," Arianna said, giving Ianto a little push to the dance floor. She may not understand humans much, but it was obvious who Ianto wanted to be with right now. Ianto turned to her and smiled, he ruffled her hair lightly before strolling onto the dance floor.

After a few hours the party had started to die down, Gwen sat next to Rhys on one of the tables and observed as their parents had both fallen asleep. Within a few minutes more and more people started to fall asleep. Then some feedback screeched through the microphone before all sounds went dead. Gwen looked around she noticed that all her guests had now fallen asleep, apart from herself, Rhys and all Torchwood.

"O-okay, Jack, what's going on?" Gwen said a little amused.

"Strange thing, when you mix Level Six retcon with champagne - really makes  
the party go with a schwing, then you fall asleep." Jack said sounding rather pleased with himself.

"You retconned our families?" Gwen asked.

Jack mocked gasped before smiling. Arianna came and stood next to him, he picked her up and placed her on his lap and gave her a friendly hug.

"It's probably for the best. I don't want my mum remembering what happened to  
her today." Gwen agreed.

Rhys stared at Jack unsure of what was happening now.

Jack pushed two Champaign glasses towards Gwen and Rhys with his free hand.

"Maybe the happy couple shouldn't either?" Jack said.

"No, thank you. There'll be no secrets in this marriage." Gwen said, and Rhys just smiled.

"Time for bed, I think." Owen said.

"We'll see you after the honeymoon. Stay out of trouble." Rhys said.

The newly-weds stood up and so did all the Torchwood team around the table, Gwen slowly said good-bye to each one and kissed each of them on the cheek. When Gwen got to Ianto she smiled, "Thank you for the dress. It was beautiful."

Ianto nodded, "Take care,"

Gwen smiled and then bent down to give Arianna a big hug, Arianna hugged her back tightly. "I'm going to miss you," she said.

Gwen looked up, "Me too," but then she noticed Arianna had tears in her eyes, Gwen raised her eyebrows, "I'm coming back, sweetie,"

"Promise?" Arianna asked tearfully.

"Promise," Gwen smiled, she kissed Arianna on the cheek and gave her a final squeeze good-bye.

"Bye-bye everyone," Gwen said.

Both Gwen and Rhys then walked out of the room, Jack waved them good-bye.

Tosh sighed, "Something tells me our bed time is a long way off,"

"That's right, guys, it's been a busy day, but we are not finished yet. We've  
got a lot to do. We've got a major mop-up operation. And I want your best work. Remember, it's Gwen's wedding." Jack said.

They all began moving about and doing work except Arianna who just sat down and watched them.

Ianto smiled at Arianna, "That's what I love about Torchwood. By day you're chasing the scum of the universe. Come midnight, you're the Wedding Fairy."

She just giggled.


	5. Chapter 5 Who is she?

Chapter 5

It was two months later and everything was running smoothly, Gwen was back from her Honey-moon and everyone was working as per usual. Arianna was fixing her robot, it had been working for a few days now but there was some problems with it, for one the battery supply kept running low. It had taken her so long because she was building it by herself and it was a challenge to find enough parts let alone put them together and keep them in place. She had modelled it from K-9 who was a robot dog that her father and Romana had built. Except since Arianna was modelling hers from memory she made it smaller with a few adjustments and it probably wasn't quite as advanced as K-9 was. Nevertheless she loved her little dog.

She was sitting on her bet late one night in her pyjamas just doing a little re-wiring in her dog's circuit. When she heard the doors open and the sound of heels echoing through the hub. She had been trying to ignore the team since they were making a lot of noise and she was trying to concentrate but this was different. It was someone different.

Arianna carefully put down her dog and crept outside her room into the main area of the hub to find the team all gathered, a pretty woman walked in, someone Arianna had never seen before. She was very smart looking and was obviously in some kind of agency or organisation.

"Suddenly, in an underground mortuary, on a wet night in Cardiff, I hear the song of a nightingale." Jack announced.

Arianna walked out to the balcony and descended the stairs quietly.

"Miss Martha Jones." Jack introduced. Jack gave a little wink and the lady, Martha smiled.

They gave each other a big hug and Martha sighed happily, "Oh, it's good to see you, Jack."

They pulled away as Jack introduced the members of his team.

"Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Ianto," Jack smiled at them, "Meet Martha,"

Martha smiled at them all and they returned the smiles, well apart from Owen who just looked confused. Arianna stepped down a bit further and all the adults turned to look at her.

Jack smiled. She looked so adorable; she was wearing teddy pyjamas with her long black hair messily flowing around her. The light in the hub made her pale skin have a little hint of shine and her blue eyes glittered. Jack walked up to Arianna and took her hand and brought her down to meet Martha.

"Martha this is Arianna, Arianna meet Martha." Jack introduced them.

Arianna gave a shy smiled and leaned closer to Jack, Martha smiled in response before looking up to Jack, her smile faltered.

"Children? In Torchwood Jack, honestly." Martha said.

"It's not what you think, she's part of the reason I called you," Jack informed her.

"So, just a casual visit or…?" Owen asked.

Martha turned to him. "I'm here to complete your postmortem." She walked off into the medical area.

"Dr Jones is from UNIT." Jack informed before he picked up Arianna and followed Martha.

The rest of the Team all followed Martha and Jack into the medical room. Jack stood by the railing and put Arianna back on the floor, she sat down with her legs hanging over the railing and they watched Martha get her things ready.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, I get a bit confused. Which one's UNIT?" Gwen asked.

"Intelligence, military, cute red caps. The acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens. We're more ad hoc. But better looking." Jack said.

"I identified a pattern from UNIT's data on sudden deaths. Toxic shock. Nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations. But there was a statistically significant concentration in South Wales." Martha said.

"Come on, Martha, be honest. You just came all this way to see me." Jack teased.

"Still struggling to conquer your shyness, Jack?" Martha joked with him.

Owen gave a slight 'ahem', "So what about this pattern, then, Dr Jones?"

Martha began examining the body in odd places before answering. "They were being written off as suicides or accidents. Look. Puncture mark. Hypodermic needle. You'll find his bloodstream was pumped full of ammonium hydroxide."

"Yeah Bloodstream. That was the thing I was going to do next." Owen mumbled.

"Have you checked his medical records?" Martha asked.

"Er, No. I was just about to." Owen said awkwardly.

"Well Let's give it a go. You never know, Owen, you might learn something." Martha said. She smiled.

Owen looked un-impressed but tried to pull a smile out for the new comer.

Martha turned to look at Arianna who was swinging her legs, she caught eyes with her and smiled, the little girl smiled back. Martha knew something wasn't right, she looked like a cute little girl yes, but perhaps she was too cute, too cute to be human, Martha thought. There had to be some reason Jack had called her, and this was probably it.

"Anyway, Martha can I have a word, in my office?" Jack asked.

"Sure," Martha smiled.

They walked out the room. Arianna got up and started walking off, Ianto strode up next to her.

"Where you going little missy?" Ianto asked playfully.

"To my bedroom, ooh, come and see!" Arianna grinned, she pulled Ianto into her bedroom to show her dog.

"Oh, he's getting more wonderful by the day, how's the repairs coming?" Ianto asked as he looked over the little dog.

"Great, I'm nearly there". She gave it a little pat and suddenly he sprung to life again.

"Yay!" She exclaimed.

"Wow, you're so clever," Ianto said in awe and the little robot dog wagged it's tail.

"Awaiting orders Mistress." The dog said.

Arianna grinned.

"I still can't get my head around how you got it to talk." Ianto mumbled.

Meanwhile in Jack's office, Martha was having a little poke around while Jack sat in his chair.

"How's the family?" Jack asked.

"Getting better. They send their love." Martha smiled.

"Give them mine. So, End of the World Survivors Club." Jack said.

Martha sat down opposite him. "God, I am so glad to see you, Jack!"

Jack smiled, "See, you did come all this way just to see me. It's the jaw line. Once seen, always yearned for."

They laughed together for a while before pausing, "D'you miss him?"

"No." She replied, Jack gave her a look, "I made my choice!" She defended herself. Jack cocked his head as if to say, 'I don't believe you.' "Maybe sometimes." She admitted.

"Ah!" Jack said grinning.

"Tiny bit. Tiny, tiny. Then I come to my senses again. Anyway, I've got plenty to occupy me." Martha said.

"Oh, yeah, Miss Highfalutin'. What is it? Medical officer?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, yes." Martha smiled.

"So do I have to call you ma'am?" Jack asked.

"No." Martha laughed, then she turned serious. "Just follow my orders to the letter."

They both laughed.

"You should have called me if you were looking for a job." Jack said.

"I wasn't. This woman from UNIT rang out of the blue, said I was just what they needed, that I'd come highly recommended by an impeccable source." Martha said.

"You mean...?" Jack asked pointing upwards.

"Well, who else would have done it?" Martha said.

"He must have thought he owed you a favour. Guess we all do." Jack admitted.

Martha smiled gently, before she leaned in a bit. "So come on then, you've been putting it off, who's this girl, she's not human."

Jack grinned. "You're not going to believe it."

"Oh, I believe a lot now." Martha smirked. "Tell me, you wanted too, that's why you called isn't it?"

"Yeah it is," Jack said.

"So come on then." She prompted him.

"It started one evening, not long after you two dropped me back." He paused and Martha nodded, she knew who he meant. "Yes, well, just sorted a few things out with the team when we noticed some odd readings."

Martha quirked an eyebrow.

"Well, we went to investigate. In the middle of the park, late at night there was this circular pod thing, later found out it was an escape pod."

Martha asked, "The girl?"

"Yes, she was inside. Alone, her mother had sent her away to escape a war." Jack informed.

"So do you know what she is? She looks human, but I have a funny feeling she's not." Martha said.

Jack smiled, "That's the interesting bit. We just asked her a few questions gently, she told us she wasn't from Earth and it was the first time she'd been here, although she knew about it from her parents, particularly her father."

"Right," Martha said encouraging him to continue.

"She said she was a Time Lord." Jack said slowly.

Martha's eyes widened. "Is she, or was she saying that. The Doctor's the last one. We know that."

"I know, that's what I thought, but she had no reason to lie, so I thought I'd do a sneaky test. I checked her heart. Or should I say hearts plural."

"She had two?" Martha asked.

"Yes, she's a Time Lord, I was certain when I found out who her father is." Jack said, this time grinning.

"No, don't tell me." Martha couldn't even finish her sentence, she just gasped.

"If you want absolute proof, I can't do any genetics, but she talks EXACTLY like him, she's super clever, a little quirky and totally lovable. She's the Doctor's daughter. She said so herself." Jack's smile faltered slightly.

"He never said. I just. I never thought…" Martha paused when she saw Jack's face. "What is it?"

"Her planet was torn apart by war. I don't even want to ask her about her mother. We know the Doctor thought he was the only one left. Which means they are the only two left. She doesn't have anyone except him. And I don't think she's knows it. And what's worse I can't get hold of him." Jack said.

"The poor thing. She must be so scared and upset." Martha said sadly. "Why do you think he never told us about his family. I'm presuming her mother was his wife?"

"Yeah, I think so. Perhaps it was just too painful for him. He still thinks she's dead."

"Gosh, that's so horrible." Martha said. "And you've been looking after her?"

"'course I have." Jack smiled. "She's a lovely girl Martha really. She reminds me so much of him, all the time. I owe him, the least I can do is look after her well."

"Of course," Martha sighed. "May I see her?"

"Sure," Jack said. "I think she'll like you, perhaps when you two are on your own you could tell her you travelled with him. Tell her a few stories, she likes that. She said her dad used to tell her stories of his adventures. I think it would be nice to hear some from you."

"I'd like that," Martha smiled.

Jack showed Martha to Arianna's room. The Time Tot was sitting on the floor next to Ianto and they were looking at the metal dog.

"Wow, what is that?" Martha asked.

"Little miss Arianna, has been working on her own robotic dog?" Jack said proudly. "How's he coming along?" he added.

"Hmm, alright, he keeps breaking down. I don't have the right equipment to fix him up properly." Arianna said sadly and patted his head.

"Affection noted, mistress." The Dog replied.

"Haha! He talks," Martha said joyfully.

"Yep, takes orders too," Ianto added.

"Aren't you a good boy Derik, I'll fix you, I promise." Arianna smiled as she gently stroked his head.

"Derik?" Jack asked.

"Yes, that's him name." Arianna replied.

"Why Derik?" Jack asked. "Of all the names you could have chosen. Could have called him Jack." He added with a smirk.

Arianna laughed gently. "I liked the name Derik. You like your name don't you Derik?"

"Affirmative mistress." Derik replied.

"Arianna is it alright if I have a little chat with you?" Martha asked.

Arianna turned her head immediately towards Jack, who smiled. He walked up to her and kissed her on the head. "Don't worry, Martha's lovely."

Jack turned to Ianto, "Come on, let's leave these ladies for a bit."

Ianto nodded and followed Jack out the room. Martha smiled at Arianna and sat where Ianto had sat previously. She glanced around the room.

"Lovely room, lots of planets. I wonder, is your home planet on here? Planet of the Time Lords?" Martha smiled as she turned to Arianna.

Arianna's eyes widened. "How did you know? Only Jack knows, he says I have to keep it a secret!"

"It's alright, you're secrets safe with me. Jack told me, because, I knew your father." Martha smiled. "He'd be proud of this, your dog, Derik's amazing."

"He's not that good, he keeps breaking. I could do with Dad's sonic screwdriver. He was always good at fixing things. I wish he was here. He could fix Derik properly." Arianna paused, "How did you know him?"

"I travelled with him for a while, he was a good friend of mine." Martha said. "I know he misses you very much." Martha added truthfully.

"I miss him too." Arianna said quietly.

"We'll find him. I'll help you, I promise."

Arianna smiled in return.

"So tell me you clever little thing, how did you build Derik?" Martha asked.

"Well, it's modelled on a dog my Dad and his friend Romana built, called K-9, it's a mobile self-powered computer with defensive capabilities and built-in speech circuitry. Also he has tracking circuits and a new multi-phase blaster built into his nose and a servo-mechanism for articulating neck through vertical plane, his tail is also an antenna for boosting radio signal. But to actually build him I needed…"

But Martha cut her off, "Woah, I would love to listen to more, but I'm sure I would not understand a word of it."

They both smiled and laughed lightly.

"So, tell me about your home planet," Martha said softly.

"Daddy didn't tell you?" Arianna asked.

"He did a little but we got sidetracked." Martha said although she couldn't remember exactly how they got sidetracked. He tended to just stop talking about it and trail off, that's what he did when he got uncomfortable.

"Oh. What do you want to know?"

"Just, what it was like living there."

"Well. It was nice." Arianna paused. "I don't know what you want me to say. Other than I really miss it."

"I'm sorry." Martha said, "Okay, why don't you tell me what it's been like living here, it's hardly a place for a child to grow up."

"Time Tot." Arianna said.

"What?" Martha questioned.

"Young Time Lords aren't called children, they're called Time Tots." Arianna smiled.

"Well, I didn't know that." Martha laughed, "So, little Time Tot, what's it like here?"

"Erm, it's quite fun, there's lots of random wiring and all sorts of technology lying about, it's a bit like home actually. Well not really the only similarity is the amount of technology left lying around. But it's nice with Torchwood. They're really nice to me." Arianna patted Derik's head again.

"It's not really the ideal place for you to be though is it? I mean, the technology is good yes, but all this violence, your father would not approve of that. You can't stay here." Martha sighed and took Arianna's little hand and stroked it affectionately, she looked into her blue eyes.

"I don't have anywhere else." Arianna said sadly. "I can't go back to Gallifrey. I don't know how."

Martha choked slightly and tried to stop the tears, "No, no you can't." She whispered. Arianna didn't know, she didn't realise she could never go back. "Perhaps you could stay with me."

"Re-…really?" Arianna asked.

"If, if you'd like to I mean." Martha smiled "I'd love to have you stay. For as long as you'd like, I'd try to keep you comfortable and I'd want to make it as homely as possible."

"I'd love that." Arianna smiled, then her smile faded slightly. "But what about here? They've done so much for me, I couldn't."

"I don't think they'll mind, you've been here for a few months. And it's what's best for you, not them. You need to be looked after, you're so much like your father you know. Always caring for everyone except for yourself." Martha smiled.

"I'd love to stay with you, but… I don't know." Arianna sighed and looked at her dog again.

They heard steps coming towards the door.

"Just think about it. For now it can be our little secret." Martha winked.

"Okay," Arianna giggled.

Jack walked in, he admired the two who were sitting quite close together and smiled.

"Getting along?" Jack smirked.

"Nicely thank you," Martha replied.

"You ready for a tour Martha Jones?" Jack asked.

"Of course." Martha smiled and she held out her hand to Arianna, "Why don't you come with us?"

"Okay." Arianna smiled back.

"Fair enough, then bedtime okay?" Jack said.

Arianna nodded and walked hand in hand with Martha whom she'd taken a liking to. Jack smiled to himself, he knew Arianna would like Martha, after all Martha was a very caring person. Arianna needed someone she could cling to and feel comforted by, that couldn't be him, he had a job to do, a dangerous job. But Martha was ideal, she'd travelled with the Doctor so she knew a bit about Time Lords, but also she was human enough to care for her well without putting her in too much danger.

They walked around the hub and Jack, Martha and Arianna were also joined by Gwen who was really just curious about how Martha knew Jack but she kept quiet for a while. She was waiting for the right moment.

"So that's the hot house. Tour continues this way, ladies, please. No dawdling." Jack said. Arianna followed him out of the room but Gwen pulled Martha aside.

"Um, so, you know Jack pretty well, then?" Gwen asked as she looked out the window to see Jack and Arianna talking on the balcony.

"Oh, we were only together for... a few days. But it was pretty intense." Martha said.

Gwen raised her eyebrows. "You mean…?"

Martha looked confused, before realisation dawned on her face. "Oh, God, no! No, not that sort of intense." She giggled awkwardly, "Nothing like that." Then she paused. "Why? Are you and him...?" She trailed off but Gwen knew what she meant.

Gwen laughed. "No, no, not at all."

Martha laughed too, "We must be the only two people on the planet."

"I know. What are we doing wrong?"

They laughed together again.

"Oi, you talking about me?" Jack asked.

Martha and Gwen looked out the window to see his face look rather smug and Arianna's looking rather confused.

"No, no, we were just discussing alien flora, weren't we?" Gwen said as she and Martha walked onto the balcony to meet them.

"Oh, yeah," Martha added.

"She's no fun. Raise your game, girls!" Jack grinned.

They made their way down to another room in the hub where Martha picked up one of the alien objects. "You've got some well weird kit. What's this?"

"Be careful. It's an alien artefact." Jack said.

"Yeah, There's a lot of argument about this. But for my money, it's got to be a surgical instrument." Owen strode into the room and took the artefact off Martha and began to fiddle with it.

"Really?" Martha asked.

"He's guessing. Typical medic." Jack chuckled. "Not even Arianna knows what it is, and that's saying something."

"Well, I agree with Owen." Arianna piped up, she was a little annoyed her intelligence was being questioned.

"That's 'cause we're both right Arianna." Owen said. "Hmm. Okay, right. Well, I call it a singularity scalpel. See, what it does is it concentrates energy on a tiny fixed point without damaging anything on the way. It's brilliant."

"It's amazing." Martha agreed.

"Yeah, do you remember the last time you did that, Owen...?" Gwen said sceptically.

"Yes, yes." He said dismissively, "Right, now, all we're going to do is, we're going to vaporise this paper without even scorching the cup." He scrunched up a piece of paper and placed it inside a paper cup that was on the desk. He then fiddled with some buttons and levers on the machine.

"This is going to end in tears." Jack said.

"It worked at Gwen's wedding, thank you." Owen said defensively.

"Yeah, but Rhys did it, and that was the first and last time it's ever worked." Gwen added shuddering at the thought she'd almost been exploded at the hands of that thing.

"Ok." Owen said and he powered up the machine whilst aiming it at the cup.

Ianto walked up behind the desk whilst holding a tray totally oblivious to what Owen was doing. Suddenly the machine shot and Ianto thankfully ducked as a mini explosion happened behind him, in the same line where his head would have been. "Aagh!" He exclaimed.

Everyone tried to stifle their laughter apart from Ianto who pulled himself together and looked deadly serious. After a quick glare at Owen from Ianto he addressed Jack. "Jack?"

"Hmm." Jack mumbled still containing his laughter.

"There's been another attack. Assault with a hypodermic. Only this time, the victim survived. Woman, aged 27. She's in the hospital." Jack left the room and everyone followed, Ianto added, "Medical records wiped, just like the others."

- This is how I imagined Arianna would look like, sorry it's not a great picture. All rights go to the original artist.


	6. Chapter 6 Who knew?

Chapter 6 - Who knew?

"Alright, Martha, Gwen with me to the hospital." Jack said.

"What's happening?" Arianna asked. She looked up at Jack with her big blue eyes, he picked her up and she put her arm round his neck.

"Don't worry, minor crisis." Jack said, "Ianto will look after you, right Ianto?"

"Yep, I'd love to." Ianto said from behind Tosh.

"Alright, be good kids," Jack called out, he kissed Arianna on the head and put her down again. "If you find anything else let me know."

Jack walked off, Gwen smiled at Arianna before following him but Martha knelt down in front of Arianna.

"We'll talk more later okay?" She asked.

Arianna nodded, then unexpectedly she put her arms around Martha, Martha smiled and gave Arianna a hug. Owen raised his eyebrow, "Well there's something you don't see every day," he muttered as he walked back to his medical bay.

Arianna was usually slow to trust people, she was only really at ease with the team because she had spent so much time with them, but she hardly knew Martha.

"Alright, I've got to go now." Martha smiled, "See you later."

Arianna let go and stood watching as Martha went after Jack and Gwen. Ianto walked up to her and took her hand, "You like Martha then?"

"She's nice," Arianna smiled.

"What about me?" Ianto asked with a cheeky smile on his face.

Arianna looked confused, "You're nice too."

"Just nice?" Ianto asked.

Arianna caught on to his teasing, "You're very very nice, the nicest nice person I know" she smiled.

"That's more like it," Ianto chuckled.

She looked up to Ianto and raised her arms.

Ianto laughed, "Come on then," He said as he hoisted her up.

Ianto carried Arianna to her room so that she could get ready for bed. Once Arianna was in pyjamas and curled up under the covers Ianto got out a book, he usually read to her at night, apparently that's what her father used to do. Before long Arianna had fallen asleep and Ianto went to find Owen and Tosh to see if he could help.

In the hospital Gwen, Martha and Jack were alone in a room with patient Marie, who was in bed and wired up to many machines which were monitoring her. Martha took a vial of blood from the surviving victim.

"Yeah, but the doctors said they'd finished with me." Marie said.

"We're a bit different." Martha told her.

Gwen walked over to the other side of the bed, "We know this is tough on you, Marie. But did you recognize the man who attacked you?" she asked.

"I already told the police." Marie said.

"We're different from them, too." Jack informed her.

"No, I never seen him before." Marie told him.

"Did he say anything in the course of the attack?" Gwen asked.

"No." Marie replied.

"Open wide." Martha told Marie as she took a swab sample from Marie's mouth.

"Look, he just ... he just came towards me with a great big bloody needle,  
didn't he? You know, my dog bit him and then I kicked him in the nuts." Marie said.

Jack laughed, "Respect!"

Once they got back to the hub Owen and Martha set to work, they moved fast and worked well together. Martha grabbed two bottles with orange and green liquid inside. She handed them to Owen and he put them on the table. Martha then grabbed the squeeze bottle and tossed it over to him, Owen caught the bottle with ease.

Martha smiled she was enjoying herself, it seemed almost like a game rather than work. Owen grabbed another squeeze bottle and a cylinder off the side table. Martha then opened the cover off a Petri dish whilst Owen uncapped a bottle and put some  
liquid from the two squeeze bottles into it. Martha scratched the bottom of the Petri dish as Owen shook his bottle and muttered something to her that made her laugh. Owen added a few orange drops to his bottle. And Martha continued working.

Owen looks at a transparency film.

"This is a... three four." He said.

Martha just nodded.

She held out the slide and Owen added a couple of drops of the stain mixture from the bottle he was holding. He put the bottle down and took the slide from Martha.

Owen then went to the computer and typed something in.

They kept working for another half hour until they reached the point where they were both leaning against a work table and watching a blue blob move across a screen, Owen broke the silence.

"So you and Jack go back a long way?" Owen asked.

"Forward and back really." Martha said.

"And Arianna get's on well with you, I was surprised she hugged you, no offense or anything but it usually takes her a while to trust people." Owen said.

"Yeah, I have to say I was a little surprised." Martha paused, "But then she's a sweet girl."

"Yeah she is, a sweet _alien_ girl." Owen added. "Jack won't tell us what she is, but we know he knows."

"Maybe he has a reason for keeping it from you." Martha said.

Owen huffed, "So what brought you two together?" Owen asked, referring to Jack.

"Let's say… we were under the same doctor." Martha replied.

Owen looked confused but Martha changed the subject. "These killings - why the ammonium hydroxide? It's a weird way to kill someone."

"Yeah, Yeah. It's gross. It's like injecting them with bleach." Owen agreed.

"Unless the objective isn't just killing." Martha said suddenly.

Owen raised his eyebrows, "It's destroying something in the victim's bloodstream."

They both took a step towards the monitor whilst they were thinking.

"It's getting rid of evidence!" Martha said, she turned to Owen who nodded in agreement.

Jack called a meeting and the whole team gathered to exchange information that they had collected. Marie's picture and information was on a board for them all to see clearly and they all sat around the large wooden table.

"Locally, we've got a murder victim and a survivor. Both attacked with  
hypodermics, both with their medical records wiped." Jack informed them.

"And more cases across the UK. We think the point of the attacks is to  
destroy evidence of their medical condition." Martha added.

Jack looked over to his left, "Gwen, Ianto, pursue the criminal investigation."

"Okay." Gwen said and Ianto nodded.

"Martha, Owen will follow up with the medical side." Jack said to his right.

"Fine," Owen replied.

"Tosh, any luck in retrieving those medical records?" Jack asked her.

"Not yet. I'm gonna have to dig down into the system memories, see if I can  
find any remnants of deleted or temporary files. Completely illegally, of course." Tosh told him.

"Do what you have to. We're not dealing with a freak with some needle fetish.  
This is a conspiracy." Jack said seriously.

Gwen and Ianto drove out to investigate another body that had been found in the woods. Once they got back Gwen told Martha what she had found.

"The attack took place in the woods, so no witnesses, no CCTV." Gwen explained.

"Same as the others." Martha said.

"Yeah. Tosh just checked Barry's medical records - already wiped." Gwen replied.

"And the puncture mark on his eyeball was identical to the other victims. I  
mean, Jack's right. These attacks are not random, they're clinical. Professional. More  
like assassinations." Martha said.

"Except Barry Leonard was a student. Who'd assassinate a student?" Gwen asked.

"Student Loans Company." Martha replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I think you've just cracked it." They both smirked but Gwen continued, "But why delete medical records? You know, what did all these people have in common?"

"Owen's analyzing Marie's test results now. I'm hoping that will give  
us an indication." Martha told her.

"So we're still in the dark, no idea where the killer will strike next  
and the attacks are getting more frequent." Gwen sighed.

"We keep looking, Gwen, we'll find something." Martha reassured her.


	7. Chapter 7 The Parasites

Over the intercom Ianto's voice said "Martha, call from the hospital, Marie's had some sort of seizure."

Martha nodded to Gwen and left to go and find Owen who was looking at a DNA double helix on a screen in the lab.

"They want us at the hospital. Marie's collapsed." Martha said.

"Yeah? My money's on this stuff." Owen said, indicating to the screen. "From Marie's blood. It's a new one on me."

"Yeah, me too." Martha agreed as she took a good look at the screen, "Have you run an isoenzyme analysis on it?"

"No, not yet. What are you thinking? Parasitic infection?" Owen asked.

"Could be."

"It's got to be down to this stuff, cause otherwise I haven't got a clue what's wrong with her." Owen admitted.

"Yeah - no infections, no deficiencies in organ function, perfect cholesterol levels, ideal blood pressure." Martha said as she read all the readings they had taken from Marie.

"Yeah, exactly. She's so normal, she's abnormal."

Martha and Owen went to check on Marie and to question her about any illnesses she had had. Whilst they were questioning her she began to have a fit and before either of the Doctor's could do anything, she died. Tiny insects flew out of Marie's mouth before dying and falling all over the hospital floor. Meanwhile Ianto and Gwen were visiting Barry's friend who revealed that Barry had been cured of Diabetes, just as Marie had been cured of HIV.

The next morning Arianna woke up to find the hub was still busy. She got dressed and made her way out of her room where she soon bumped into Jack.

"Hello." He said cheerily as he picked her up. "Ready for some breakfast?"

"Yes, please." Arianna replied as she put her arms around his neck.

Jack carried her to the kitchen where he placed her gently on the kitchen table and got out the necessary things to make her a bowl of cereal.

"Uncle Jack?" Arianna asked as she watched him.

"Hm?" Was his reply.

"What's happening?"

Jack turned around to see her inquisitive blue orbs staring up at him.

"We're having a meeting in a couple of minutes, you can hear all about it then. You might even be able to help us figure out what's going on. 'Cause I sure as hell don't know." Jack said as he carefully placed the bowl in one hand and hoisted Arianna up with the other.

He carried her into the meeting room and sat her down; he placed the bowl and spoon in front of her and then took the seat on her right. The rest of the team began to make their way in, muttering 'morning' as they sat down.

"Right. Give me an update." Jack said.

Martha put an image up on the screen of the alien bug that had flown out of Marie's mouth, the previous day.

"It's an alien larva, incubating in human bodies." Martha announced.

"We've never seen anything like it. So it left Marie's body when she died, presumably looking for another host for its next stage of development." Owen added.

"Which could have been us." Martha said.

"Yeah. Fortunately, when they didn't find one quickly, they died." Owen replied.

"I wonder what this cute little larva grows up to be?" Ianto mused aloud.

Martha pulled up another image on screen and Owen introduced it to the team, "This, folks, is a molecular model of the drug that we found in Marie's blood."

"She called it Reset." Martha helpfully filled in.

Arianna glanced up from her cereal to take a look at the image on the screen, she cocked her head to one side as she thought.

"So what does it do?" Ianto asked.

"Well, think about when you run, you know, a virus scan through your computer,  
yeah? The software works its way through the files and when it finds a Trojan or a virus or whatever, identifies it and then it deletes it. That is what this stuff does to the  
human body. But it's not just viruses. It's harmful bacteria, toxins, even mutant cells,  
you name it. It's like the body's been turned back to its factory settings." Owen replied.

"It's the ultimate magic bullet. Supersedes anything and everything in the  
pharmacological armoury." Martha added.

"But that would be the greatest medical discovery in history." Gwen said in shock.

"Exactly. Except, it comes bundled with a lethal alien parasite." Martha put up the picture of the earlier insect to remind them.

Arianna put another spoonful of cereal in her mouth while she looked at the screen.

"Ah, not so good a discovery." Jack said, whilst handing Arianna a tissue as she'd accidentally dripped a bit of milk down her chin.

"The parasite needs a healthy body until it's incubated. So the parasite egg incorporates this magic bullet, which puts everything in the system back to its factory  
settings." Martha explained.

"Reset. Neato. So who runs the Pharm?" Jack asked.

"Well, the public image is innocent enough. Private-public partnership between the government and a consortium of the pharmaceutical companies. Researching and developing cutting-edge biotechnology." Ianto informed them.

"Their IT systems are way more cutting-edge than they need to be. Plus, they've got seemingly unrestricted security clearance." Tosh added.

"Which means they'd have the capability to erase medical records if they  
wanted to." Martha said.

"Exactly." Tosh agreed.

"Who runs this outfit?" Jack asked.

"Institute director is a Dr. Aaron Copley." Gwen said as Ianto changed the image on the monitor to show Dr. Copley's photo and information.

"Yeah, I know his work. He's one of the most respected research scientists in  
his field." Owen said.

"Harvard graduate. Did research at Cambridge. Last job, Harvard Professor of  
Molecular Pharmacology. Came to the UK to set up the Pharm." Ianto said.

"Hmm, he's kinda handsome, too. D'you think he'll like visitors?" Jack asked with a smile.

Arianna looked up at him. "You're going?"

"Just for a quick visit." Jack said and kissed the top of her head. "Ianto'll look after you, won't you Ianto?"

"It would be a delight as always." Ianto smiled. "Let's get you a drink." He took her bowl in one hand and her hand in the other before they made their way back to the kitchen.

"Is it always like this?"

"Like what?" Ianto asked as he poured some juice into a glass.

"Everyone going different places."

Ianto handed her the glass. "Afraid so. Most of the time."

"Martha asked if I wanted to live with her." Arianna said.

Ianto bent down to her level. "Did she?"

"Yeah, but I like it here, and I'd miss you." Arianna hugged Ianto, being careful not to spill her juice.

"Well you don't have to go if you don't want to. But it might be nice for you to have a quieter place to live. And I'd miss you too, but we would come and visit you." Ianto said whilst hugging the little girl.

"Really?" Arianna asked.

"Really." Ianto replied with a smile.

Arianna paused for a moment before she pulled away slightly. "Would Uncle Jack be really sad?"

Ianto smiled, "Of course he would be a little bit sad that you weren't here all the time, but he'd be happy for you too."

"What about Gwen and Owen and Tosh?" Arianna asked.

"They'd all miss you too, but you could always come back to Cardiff for a few days… Wouldn't it be nice to see some of England too?" Ianto asked.

Arianna nodded whilst she drunk some of her juice.

"Maybe we can talk about this later." Ianto suggested. "How about a look at Derik, I haven't seen him in a while."


	8. Chapter 8 Cupcakes

Arianna led Ianto to her room and there sitting on the desk, he found Derik.

"Wow. He must be almost completely finished by now. He looks amazing." Ianto said as he looked over the little dog.

"Yes, but I can't get him to work properly. I've been working on him for ages and he still keeps breaking." Arianna huffed.

"Aw, don't worry. You'll get it eventually." Ianto stroked her hair affectionately.

He realised that he was getting quite attached to her, he didn't want to think of the idea that she might be living with Martha, even though he knew he was being selfish, he wanted her to stay with him.

"Ianto! Come here for a minute!" Jack called.

"I'll be right back." Ianto said as he wondered out of the room. Arianna got back to work on trying to fix Derik.

It was a few hours until Arianna gave up on trying to fix Derik and wondered out of her room. She skipped up the stairs and walked straight into Gwen.

"Oh, sorry darling, I didn't see you there. Are you alright." Gwen smiled.

"Yep." Arianna replied. "Where is everyone?"

"Oh, you know busy as always."

"Yeah." Arianna sighed. Everyone was always busy, busy doing things that she wasn't allowed to.

Gwen gave her a sympathetic look. "Tell you what; let's go make some cakes. Have you ever done that before?"

Arianna shook her head excitedly and took Gwen's hand as they made their way to the make shift kitchen. Gwen got out some pots and pans and several ingredients and laid them on the table.

"Right all we need is a recipe book. I don't suppose there's one in here…" She said as she looked through several cupboards.

"I know where Ianto keeps some… But don't tell him I told you." Arianna said.

Gwen laughed, "I won't. I promise. After that make sure you wash your hands, darling. We don't want you to get ill."

"Okay." Arianna said as she skipped around the kitchen and pulled out a large book and plonked it on the table. She then skipped over to the sink. She had rather taken to skipping recently, it was really fun. However when she got to the sink she realised she was too small to reach it. She tried to stand on her tip-toes but she was still too small.

Gwen noticed and chuckled before lifting her up to the sink.

"There you go, Sweetie." Gwen held her tightly as the little girl washed her hands in the soapy water.

After she was finished Gwen helped her down again and helped her dry her hands with a towel.

"Right let's get cooking." Gwen said smiling.

Arianna returned her smile and giggled in excitement.

After a few hours and lots of mess Gwen finally pulled the freshly baked cup cakes out of the oven.

"Wow." Arianna said in amazement over the cakes that they had made.

"Don't they look good." Gwen said as she suddenly felt really hungry.

"Can we have one now?" Arianna asked.

"Hmm… I wish, but they're far too hot to eat right now, why don't you get cleaned up while we wait for them to cool down?" Gwen suggested.

"Alright." Arianna chirped as he bounced off towards her room to change into something cleaner.

Gwen walked over the kitchen with a smile on her face and almost walked into Owen.

'_What is it with me and walking into people today?' _Gwen thought.

"Something smells delicious." Owen smirked.

"Cupcakes. But you can't have any, they've just come out the oven and Arianna is allowed the first one." Gwen said defensively.

"Alright… keep your knickers on." Owen said, "Jack wants us in his office for a minute."

Gwen nodded and followed him to Jack's office where the team had congregated; She closed the door behind her.

"I thought whilst Martha is away doing her stuff we should have a little chat." Jack said.

"But what happens if she needs help?" Gwen asked."

"I have her on screen for any emergencies, but she's back in her room at the Pharm right now." Tosh said from behind a computer screen.

"Yes, so you may have heard that Martha has asked Arianna to stay with her." Jack informed them.

"What? Nobody told me!" Gwen said.

"That's why I'm telling you now." Jack replied but Gwen wasn't impressed.

"I just wanted to get your opinions; do you think she should stay with us or live with Martha?" Jack asked.

"I don't want her to leave." Gwen said quietly.

"Neither do I." Ianto added.

"Right, I know but what we need to think about is what's best for her." Jack said.

"Yeah, this place is not good for a kid." Owen said, "As much as I think she's great, and she is an alien, Torchwood's not got a great record for being safe."

"Owen's right, besides she really likes Martha. It would be good for her to live in a proper house, with someone you can care for her constantly. We do treat her a bit like a shift." Tosh reminded them.

"But on the other hand, she is alien, maybe this is the best place for her, this is where her needs can best be provided isn't it?" Gwen said.

"But she is just a child." Jack said, "She needs someone to love her and treat her like a child, we can't always do that for her."

"I think we should let her decide." Ianto said.

Jack nodded, "Perhaps you're right. At least now we know everyone's position. Alright, go and do whatever you were doing before, we need to focus on helping Martha right now."

Meanwhile Arianna was back in her room. She hated being on her own, because it reminded her of how alone she was. She missed her Mummy and Daddy, no matter what she did to distract herself or how nice everyone was, she still just wanted to go home. She began to cry. She curled up on her bed and cried for what felt like hours.

Jack walked into Arianna's room, "Hey, Arianna…" He stopped when he realised that she was crying.

"Hey, hey… It's alright. Uncle Jack's here. Everything's going to be alright." Jack tried to soothe her, he sat next to her and rubbed her back.

"What's wrong? You can tell me." Jack said in a comforting tone.

"I… I want… I want to go home." Arianna cried.

Jack froze. What could he say? He couldn't tell her that she had no home. He couldn't say that her father didn't pick up the phone. "I know…" He said quietly, "I'm trying to get your dad here as soon as I can."

"He hasn't come though… He… He doesn't want me." Arianna sobbed.

"That's not true. He's probably really busy, he doesn't even know you're here yet." Jack said.

"Why doesn't he try and find me? Doesn't he miss me?" Arianna asked as she looked up at Jack.

"Of course he does honey, of course. And I'm sure he's on his way."

Jack pulled her close and held her and just hoped that he would be on his way soon.


	9. Chapter 9 authors note important!

**- Authors note-**

**Sorry this is just an authors note, but don't worry a new chapter will be up soon. I just wanted to apologise as I've realised I've made a HUGE continuity error!**

**I changed the episodes around a bit because it fitted better with Gwen's wedding being first, although this means that during that 'episode' Tosh mentions Owen being back from the dead already, which hasn't happened yet in 'reset' which is the one I'm writing about at the moment. **

**So I need your advice. There are three options to sort this out:**

**-Not bother and just leave it as it is with the continuity error.**

**-Edit the previous chapter in which Tosh makes that comment**

**-Changed future chapters to claim that Owen has already died and come back and therefore when he gets shot he is actually alright.**

**I'm leaning towards number 2, but I want to know what you all think, since this story is not just about my preferences…**

**So please review or message me with what you think I should do, and you'll be rewarded with a new chapter soon (I promise).**

**The quicker you review the quicker a new chapter will be uploaded! So get reviewing!**

**Thank you to all my lovely readers and those of you, who have already reviewed,**

**Vilentiel xx**

**PS. In answer to some fantastic reviews I've had, I am planning on a reunion between Arianna and the Doctor (it's too cruel to keep them apart for long).. and hopefully that will be fairly soon…**


	10. Chapter 10 Dead Man Walking

**- Author's note -**

**Just a few things to say, first of all thank you for all the wonderful reviews and messages; I really appreciate the feedback from everyone.**

**And to clarify, I will just be ignoring the mistake I have made about continuity, as the majority of reviewers seemed suggest that a new chapter was more preferable to a corrected previous one.**

**Just a quick thank you to dwatlaskrh****, who has provided me with excellent inspiration, I don't think I've used it in this chapter, but I have definitely taken it to heart and will use it later on. **

**(Also, if anyone else would like to give advice at where you think the story should be headed, I would be most grateful to hear it, you can let me know your ideas via a review or personal message, either would be lovely).**

**Finally, I hope you enjoy this chapter, I was really looking forward to bringing the Doctor into the mix soon, but I realised I forgot all about this lovely episode of Torchwood, which hopefully will tie off most of the lose ends. And that was a large spoiler I just gave you all, but yes, the Doctor will appear relatively soon. (Depending on how quickly I get through the next couple of chapters).**

**Anyway, thank you all and please review!**

**Love Vilentiel xx**

Suddenly Ianto rushed into the room.

"Jack, we need to go and help Martha now."

"Right, coming." Jack said as he jumped onto his feet.

Arianna sat on the bed with tear marks down her cheeks. Jack sighed and crouched before her.

"I want you to stay here, where you'll be safe." Jack said quietly.

Arianna shook her head, "I don't want to be left alone."

"Please, just go to sleep and when you wake up I'll be right here." Jack tried to reason with her.

"But…" Arianna began to cry again.

"JACK!" Gwen yelled from the hub.

"COMING! Get the car ready!" Jack yelled back over his shoulder.

He then sighed again and leant forward, placing a kiss on Arianna's forehead. "Just sleep, I'll be with you soon."

Jack stood up and walked to the door. He stopped to give Arianna a brief smile before he walked out of the door.

Arianna curled up in her bed and cried herself to sleep, hoping that Jack would come back soon.

Meanwhile Jack rushed into the car where all the team where already waiting. Jack started up the car and they drove swiftly off.

"Who's looking after Arianna?" Ianto asked.

"She can look after herself." Jack said firmly.

"Jack! She's a child!" Gwen gasped.

"She's asleep, and right now Martha needs us more. Besides, the sooner we get Martha out of there the sooner we get back to Arianna." Jack reasoned.

"And what happens if she needs someone, or she hurts herself?" Ianto asked.

"Look, she's not stupid. She's going to be asleep and if she does wake up and something happens then she knows that she should call Rhys. Okay!" Jack said, the stress seeping through every word.

"Well, if she can call Rhys, of course she'll be fine." Owen said sarcastically.

No-one answered but Gwen threw him a dirty look and he didn't say anything else.

Arianna awoke to here voices in the hub. They were finally back. She rushed out, desperate to just be held by someone and feel secure, but she realised that they were Ianto and jack were carrying a body and they all looked very upset.

"What happened?" Arianna asked quietly but Martha turned to her.

"Owen, he… he was hurt." She said.

Arianna's eyes watered, "Is he alright?"

"No, honey." Martha paused as she took a deep breath, "He's gone."

"No." Arianna said. She shook her head and then began to cry again. Martha picked her up and carried her back to her room, away from the horrible scene.

"It's not fair. It's not fair." Arianna mumbled as she cried into Martha's shoulder.

"I know darling." Martha sighed. She sat on the bed and held Arianna tightly.

"I want to go home…"

"I know." Martha whispered.

For a while they stayed like that, Arianna sobbing in Martha's arms, whilst Martha was unable to say anything.

Tosh eventually came in and said, "Martha we need you to do the autopsy."

Martha nodded, "Alright, will you stay here?"

"Of course," Tosh smiled sadly.

But as Martha tried to gently pull Arianna away, the little girl clung on tightly.

"Martha, don't leave me."

"It's alright, I'm coming back. Tosh is going to stay with you for a while." Martha said soothingly, "Okay?"

Arianna nodded sadly and crawled off Martha's lap and onto the bed.

"There's a good girl." Martha smiled and kissed her head.

Martha got up and Tosh sat down, although Tosh felt a bit more awkward about comforting Arianna so she just sat there and stroked the girl's hair whilst Martha made her way to the medical bay.

"I want to see him." Arianna said quietly.

Tosh wasn't sure what she should say, but decided on, "I think we should stay here."

"You want to see him too." Arianna pointed out.

"That's true but…"

"Please?" Arianna asked, she looked like she was about to cry again.

"Alright then. But if it get's too much just tell me and I'll take you back." Tosh said.

And Arianna just nodded.

They arrived in the medical bay just in time to find Jack, who had returned from wherever he had been for the past hour.

"I thought Martha was doing an autopsy." Tosh said.

"Yes, but I've got a better idea." Jack said as he raised what looked like a glove. "And why is Arianna here? This is not something she should see."

"I wanted to see him again." Arianna said quietly.

"Come here darling, stay with me." Martha pulled Arianna close to her.

"Are you really going to use that after what happened last time? Jack, the gloves are dangerous. At best it'll give us two minutes. At worst ... who knows what will happen?" Gwen said.

"It's not up for discussion." Jack replied.

"I thought the glove didn't work for you." Gwen said.

"Different glove, different circumstances. This time, it has to work for me. I'm not going to give it any choice. Okay, if you've got anything you need to say to Owen, now is your chance." Jack said as he put the glove on his left hand."

Jack cradled Owen's head in the glove and tried to concentrate so that he could find a connection. Arianna held onto Martha tightly.

"Owen ... it's Jack. Can you hear me?" Jack called out.

But there was no reply.

"Owen! Hear my voice! Get a hold of it, let it draw you out, pull you out."

Ianto looked at the monitor and then back at Jack, "I'm not getting any vital signs."

"Owen, it's me, Jack." Jack said quietly, before he informed everyone, "He's coming, he's coming!"

There was an electrical pulse sound before Owen screamed and opened his eyes.


End file.
